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FiiO has done a remarkable job since their launch in 2007, building their hard-earned reputation through innovative in-house R&D, quality products, and extensive industry accolades – not celebrity endorsements and marketing hype. FiiO has a raving, loyal fan base around the world because they have consistently delivered excellent products with exceptional innovation, performance, quality, and value. The FD5 are FiiO’s newest dynamic IEM flagship. After adding them to your collection, these may be your last....

Focal is the very definition of luxury in the audio market, including speakers of all types and headphones. Focal is premier in design and engineering, marked by obsessive and loving attention to detail and joined by a relentless pursuit of perfection. They consistently balance form and function like no other headphone manufacturer. Focal’s open and closed-back headphones all belong to the premium segment. They primarily aim at enthusiasts, audiophiles, and audio professionals....

If you want to create another product for an already crowded marketplace, how do you differentiate it from the rest? This a question that manufacturers face more and more each day. Fierce competition drives companies to be creative and to offer more features for less money. Sometimes these features are ground-breaking improvements that push innovation and benefit everyone. Sometimes they serve to differentiate a product by making it more attractive to a specific demographic....

IKKO Audio put themselves on the map with the release of the OH1 and OH10 IEMs. They have a distinct design language throughout their product range which helps them stand out in the crowded marketplace. IKKO OH2 are the newest entry in their IEM lineup and aim to capture a piece of the over-crowded sub-USD$100 budget IEM landscape. Buyers are spoilt for choices in this range, so IKKO needs something special to truly entice....

Now, all you need is a great pair of headphones to go with it. Luckily, Koss just released an awesome portable set of cans: the Porta Pro! Koss says they are “portable high-end supra-aural stereophones”; all the cool kids say they are “totally fresh and rad to the max!” Koss continued to sell the Porta Pro virtually unchanged for 34 years—a longevity almost unheard of in the electronics world. However, it seems that when something reaches this age, it’s finally time to cut the cord....

Life is full of tough, petty, meandering choices, like chocolate/vanilla, money/fame, dieting/not dieting. Some you can go back and try the other, but others are substantial or large enough that you have to pick one and forever hold your peace, like a television, car or wife. At least until they give out lol. In the IEM (in-ear monitor) world it’s just as tricky. You have a classic, followed by a variation of it, but with extra bass....

I had a fateful encounter with the Luxury and Precision W2 in March 2021. I was looking for a capable DAP that would surpass the HiBy R6 Pro, and after asking questions related to my upgrade, I encountered the W2. I was curious about what the W2 was capable of and looked into what DAC chips it utilized. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The W2 uses Cirrus Logic dual CS43198 flagship DAC’s!...

If you have been on the market for Chinese IEMs, you are very likely to have come across Shuoer. Shuoer is a Chinese IEM manufacturer, and from their website, we know that the company was founded in 2016. During these years, Shuoer never fails to impress us with their innovations and breakthroughs. Their Tape has received praises all across the world and has become an instant success. The H27 is one of their latest products and, coming in at USD$109, it has to face some competition....

Introduction Since building a couple of Raspberry Pi-based music streamers, I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect music playback software package. I started out with the comprehensive Volumio program, but I found it struggled a bit with my large local digital music collection, and it appears to be transitioning to a subscription-based service for advanced features. Eventually, I ended up going in the opposite direction with the ultrasimple, appliance-like Ropieee Roon Endpoint software, which abandons any non-Roon-based local file playback but fits my primary needs pretty well....

The Audio Design Desk, a digital audio workstation, has officially debuted into the media and entertainment scene to introduce a new approach that could shake up the sound design industry. With the domain name “add.app”, the software optimizes artificial intelligence (AI) by enabling identification of the most appropriate sound to incorporate into a video clip. In addition, it can identify at which point of a scene should these sounds be embedded....

Beats by Dre just gave out another hint on their launching of a fourth generation of PowerBeats. In a recent iOS 13.3.1 software update release, a few icons were shown depicting the design of the new earbuds, according to a post on MacRumors. The PowerBeats 4 is shown to feature a design that’s a mix of the current PowerBeats 3 earbuds and the PowerBeats Pro wireless earbuds. Like the PowerBeats Pro, the PowerBeats 4 appears to have a more curved finish, an angled in-ear fit, and wraparound earhooks....

For years, Nintendo Switch has been dominating the portable gaming console market. That’s why it’s understandable if you wish to partner them up with AirPods – the leading true wireless earbuds (TWS) in the market today. However, using AirPods with Nintendo Switch isn’t as intuitive as one might wish. In fact, it wasn’t even possible up until last year. So, if you’re stuck wondering how to connect AirPods to Nintendo Switch, look no further....

BGVP? What are they? While I’m been a self-pronounced audiophile for almost the past decade (realizing that I’m getting old quick), I honestly had no idea that this company existed, nor were I aware of their products. A quick internet search and browse section on the company told me two things, that being: The level of excitement increased exponentially upon my short research, and while I did not do any research save the specification sheet (to allow for, as much as I could, an unbiased review), reading the sheet made me even more excited, and that’s before I even opened the box....

Introduction HiBy is known for producing quality portable audio players such as the R6, R6 Pro, R3, R3 Pro, R5, R8, and the NEW R6. On the other hand, HiBy has only produced 2 IEMs under their brand, the Seeds and the Beans, both of which are entry-level IEMs with single dynamic drivers. So, when I first saw that the Crystal 6 has six balanced armatures, I was a bit skeptical....

I was on vacation in Melbourne, Australia and I found a place called Carlton Audio Visual, to demo these headphones. They were really nice guys and they let me try them on for an hour and a half on a comfy leather couch. Preface: I’m not that great at describing sounds other than bass (which I’m ok with) Setup Spotify Premium → LG V30+ → Klipsch HP-3 Build They seem very well built and everything moves smoothly....

Ranging from from sub USD$10 to a few hundred bucks, dongle DAC/amps are dime-a-dozen nowadays, and are a favorite portable source for audiophiles who do not want to lug a DAP on-the-go. As well as pairing them with phones and DAPs, dongles can be plugged into laptops and desktops too, so they are a pretty versatile source for music, gaming, and online meetings. There is no doubt that portability is their forte, but can dongles rival desktop setups and DAPs for sonic fidelity?...

The international IEM market has been booming recently, with the diversity of new IEMs rapidly expanding – both in sound and in technology. While this is undoubtedly a good thing for the industry, it does mean that it’s harder for an IEM to get noticed. Before becoming aware that I’d be reviewing the Shanling ME200, I had no idea they existed. Few people have reviewed them; the Head-Fi thread in which they were announced has only 9 pages of replies....

They will almost always reply in disbelief. I don’t blame them. When I first heard about the price, my jaw literally dropped too. Perhaps we are paying not just for the brand but also the technology powering it? I navigated over to their official website and began researching. Quad BA drivers with true subwoofer. Ok, multiple BA drivers cost more to manufacture. Hmm…true subwoofer. We shall see. Patent-pending design for low-pass filter....

Who is Tennmak? Tennmak is a China company that produces good quality audio gears at a really cheap price, otherwise cheekily known as ChiFi. Priced at less than $30, the Tennmak Pro is $10 cheaper than the Carbo Tenore but has two dynamic drivers. So can it measure up to be a quality budget IEM? Let’s find out. Package Out of the box, you get the three standard S, M, and L silicon ear tips....

I have collected a few pairs of IEM’s over the years. One interesting fact is not all the IEM’s and headphones reviewers are asked to review actually make it into their collection. As a collector, I look for an IEM that is either unique in design or sound. Will the TFZ Live Check out Clai’s review of the TFZ Live 3 – a dual dynamic driver IEM with a sexy marble textured faceplate....