In my direct experience BA8 is possibly the most capricious IEM I ever auditioned when it comes to source pairing. When it does not “like” the source, it reacts very badly. I discovered this the hard way: first source I plugged it onto has been my Questyle QP1R. Even before hitting “play”, I was struck…
Ikko OH10: masterfully jazzy
In my everdeveloping quest for the best performance on acoustic jazz at a digestable price for my pockets this time I came onto Ikko OH10, which gets the job done right right as I like it. All my sound priorities for this application are indeed there, and very competently carried out: significant extention both on…
QP1R, welcome in!
Audio life after owning a Groove becomes a bit more complicated in a sense. Do I want to go back to lower quality output, even in exchange for better portability, or more collateral features? The question actually admits more answers than it might seem at first tought, in consideration of what one really wants or…
Quick impressions: Penon Sphere
Again a privately owned IEM which I’m having the opportunity to audition for a few days to build my own impression upon. I tested them with my usual local-stored 16 / 24 bit – 44.1 / 96 / 192K music collection. Sources: Lotoo PAW 5000 Questyle QP1R Laptop -> ifi nano iUSB3.0 (w/ iPower PS)…
Quick impressions: Lotoo PAW 5000 MK-II
I got the opportunity to play with a privately owned Lotoo PAW 5000 MK-II loaner unit for a few days now, and here are my quick, superficial impressions on its performances. Sound Balanced Ended port is I would say “reasonably clean“. Difficult of course to give an worded description of what I exactly mean. I’ll…
Quick impressions: IMR RAH
I got to taste the flavour of a pair of privately owned IMR’s triple-driver RAH model. Not enough to write a full review with all the details etc, but I jotted down some notes, here they are. The most “externally evident” component of the product is the replaceable nozzle + filter system intended for the…
Intime Sora 2 : clean energetic musicality
Well, you know: I do have a passion for final’s IEMs. First of all about their sound delivery, of course, but also about the technological effort they endure on their development, and share in good details with their customers. Is that a unique case, or maybe a tendency – a sort of “regional school” ?…
Toneking MrZ Tomahawk
These are the best (read: my preferred) earbuds as of yet soundwise. Their sole real annoyance is their size, which makes them by and large impossible to wear for some, and difficult for others (me included). I’m keeping them as they sound so well that I do use them – for short sessions – every…
KBEar Stellar
If IEMs are a sea of different models and tunings, earbuds are an ocean. These new ones from KBear feature a very modest price which might contribute to stimulate the curiosity of trying them. I would not call them all-rounders as they do come with some quite sharp pros and cons, but what they do…
MEMT R1 : an attempt at something different
All about this IEM talks about the manufacturer attempting at differentiating from the crowd – which is a much needed as much as difficult exercise, considering how crowded their chosen price bracket is of successful other models. They first of all invested quite some thought onto the physical parts of the product: very lightweight, perfectly…