Hello fellow audioheads! I’m Josh, and I’m new to Headphonesty. I hope you’re ready for a new perspective that is all about being relevant to you and your journey through quality audio! In this review I will showcase the Dan Clark Audio Aeon 2 closed-back headphones, but before we dive into the details, alllow me to share a little bit about myself and my approach to audio reviews. I grew up classically trained on piano, and my father was a concert-level pianist....

Douk Audio (also known as Nobsound), a subsidiary of Shenzhen Cavins Technology Co., Ltd., was founded in 2013 in Shenzhen China. The company motto is to “make Hi-Fi affordable” by following the rules of (in their words) “quality-oriented, customer-centered and constant innovation”. They produce a wide range of stereo amplifiers, headphone amplifiers, DACs, phono stages and preamps, with an emphasis on vacuum tube components. The product lineup is a super-interesting array of unique audio doohickeys and gadgets, and it exemplifies a fascinating side of Chi-Fi....

Emotiva has worked diligently for years to make a name for themselves with audiophiles and enthusiasts who expect uncompromised audio performance. Building their reputation for designing and building high-value quality products, including amplifiers and speakers, has been a labor of love. It is a risk for Emotiva to throw their first-ever headphones into the ring with heavyweight, well-established competition in their price range. Is it worth risking their hard-earned reputation and credibility?...

My dad introduced me to professional wrestling (watching, not participating) to instill that violence doesn’t solve anything. And he’s correct, after more than 30 years they’re still at it, when a round of civil discourse could resolve things amicably. They love their fists, theatrics and spandex, so what can I say? A prevalent storyline in pro wrestling is the top guy holding new talent down, and it gets more obvious when 50-year-old Hulk Hogan is still winning matches against younger, fitter competition....

Hot on the heels of my Koss KSC35 review, here is my take on the 10-year younger Koss KSC75. That isn’t to say that they are new to the market, in fact, the KSC75 debuted way back in 2005 as a less expensive alternative to the KSC35 ear clip style headphones. The KSC35 are very similar to the renowned Koss Porta Pro, sharing the same driver and plastic enclosure but with ear clips rather than a headband....

Audiophile purists love to draw lines that firmly state that they will ‘NEVER CROSS!’ Such as announcing that they only want to listen to music ‘the way the artist intended.’ Any deviation from this ideal principle is unacceptable for the true purist. If these declarations are taken at face value, they may seem like admirable aspirations. But when you dig a bit deeper, you will discover more questions than answers....

The SMSL SU-9 is an ESS Sabre chip-based desktop DAC with a middle-of-the-road price tag. It features balanced outputs, the latest and greatest Bluetooth codecs, support for 32bit/768kHz files, DSD512, and full native MQA decoding. If you like to peruse technical specifications, you’ll soon notice that the SU-9 boasts just about every top-of-the-line option. Priced well under $500, it may also be the most affordable DAC that’s chock-a-block full of all these premium features....

SONCOZ is a name that only the most entrenched of headphone enthusiasts are likely to know. SONCOZ is the brainchild of Ben1987 (his username on the Audio Science Review forums) who is the designer of the much-lauded Khadas Tone Board DAC. Ben’s Tone Board and later SONCOZ branded DACs are known for terrific measurements, reasonable prices, and innovative balanced output solutions. Up till now, what was clearly missing from the SONCOZ lineup were matching amplifiers for desktop stacking....

There’s long been a truism in headphone audio – that OTL amps (that is, Output Transformer-less tube amplifiers) are the perfect companion to high impedance headphones. They’re simple, configurable to your own sonic needs via tube rolling, and offer the high voltage output you need to drive high impedance cans well. An OTL is a mythical beast possessing all the qualities desired by any audiophile, save for the most devoted believers in neutrality, right?...

What do Lady Gaga, Lebron James, and Kylie Jenner have in common? A fondness for Beats by Dr Dre headphones it seems. The prominent audio brand burst onto the scene in 2008 and has since made a name for themselves with their unique and stylish designs. Over the years, style over sound has been a characteristic of Beats headphones but has it always been like that? If that is the case, what else is in it for the consumer by getting a pair?...

Or is there? Clearly, you are a DIY type person. Very likely you enjoyed the build process and now are wondering ‘what’s next’? Damn it, you own a soldering iron for a reason! The Crack is an affordable kit, so builders will inevitably want to tinker and further improve performance. Bottlehead supports creativity, but they strongly caution you to build and test the Crack in stock form first, before attempting any modifications....

More than 1,300 brands, including global leaders of the hi-fi and home cinema industries, are expected to showcase their audiovisual tech solutions at the four-day Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) trade show in Amsterdam this coming Feb. 11. Official ISE 2020 exhibitors include Bose, Bluesound, Epson, Lenovo, McIntosh, Monitor Audio, Panasonic, Shure, Sonos, Sonus Faber, and Sony, to name a few. ISE, running on its 17th, will take place at the RAI Amsterdam convention centre for the last time this year as the event will move out to Barcelona starting 2021....

You’ve picked your headphones up to listen to some music and found that they won’t turn on. Not only this, but when you go to plug them in to charge, the charging light isn’t turning on. This problem becomes increasingly more concerning when they’re an expensive pair of headphones that you’ve invested a lot of money into. The last thing you want is to discard them and fork out another couple hundred dollars on a brand new pair....

With its user-friendly interface and over 82 million curated tracks and counting, playing your favorite song on Spotify cannot get any easier. That’s why it’s frustrating when you’re greeted by a ‘Spotify can’t play this right now’ error message when all you want to do is immerse yourself in your favorite track. Unfortunately, Spotify doesn’t readily provide information regarding this error, unless you’re dedicated enough to scour its community pages or user forums like Reddit to locate solutions....

How to Pick the Best Headphones With Mic For those of us craving the social element of regular life in this pandemic, nothing becomes more important than finding the best headphones with mic. So, whether it is for remote work, classes, or just kicking it back with your friends on Discord, now is the time to update your headset. The rise in remote work and school has made it more challenging than ever to pick the best headphones with mic....

Kinera Audio, also known domestically as Dongguan Yutai Electronics Co. Ltd., describes themselves as an “acoustic research centre based in China.” Mostly, I knew the brand name Kinera as just another IEM manufacturer, but you learn something new every day. Not only do they manufacture their own balanced-armature (BA) drivers, but they’ve also manufactured drivers for use in military hearing aids, among other things. While they started making IEMs in 2016, they’ve been involved in related research for quite a bit longer....

“Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, never let it fade away.” You’ve heard of a star fall, but how about a moon drop? Moondrop is part of the brigade of “holy crap, there they are again” fast-rising brands in Chi-fi, along with Fearless, Tin HiFi and the like. I’m sure there are others, but these three brands release new stuff at such a breakneck pace, it’s as if their lives depended on it....

Where to Buy Introduction Sony has garnered a reputation for producing some of the most popular Bluetooth headphones in the market, and their flagship WH-1000 series of headphones showcase the best they have to offer. The Sony WH-1000XM5 are the latest in line and claim to have class-leading Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) performance. They are also using a new 30mm carbon-dome driver that has been re-tuned based on feedback received on their previous model, the WH-1000XM4....

Planar magnetic IEMs are all the rage nowadays. It is a rather amusing trend given that most of them have timbral issues, large shells that may not work for smaller ears, and they lack the staging and imaging of many dynamic or BA driver IEMs. TinHiFi has been releasing full-range planar magnetic IEMs long before the recent trend. The TinHiFi P1 Plus, P2, and the flagship P2 Plus use smaller planar drivers that are very difficult to power....

The Xiaomi HIFI Hybrid (Mi Quad) will appeal to those who are looking for solid physical characteristics, such as Zirconia, Bluetooth (BT) independence, and above-average sonic performance in the price range of USD$200. To my knowledge, these are the first earbuds to provide LDAC (SONY) compatibility. The BT module, a separate device, provides the best sonic quality of any unit I have tested. Audibly, it features sonic performance that is equal to straight audio plug into older iPhones so equipped without LDAC....