I never fell in love with the planar timbre, neither in the end I did this time. It’s just not precisely my cup of tea. Yet this time it was a much closer call, really. What I heard is no doubt a full class above any other chifi planar I auditioned to date. This piece…
Category: IEM
KZ CRN
I have no direct experience with KZ products. Most of all, as my 15 readers know very well, I’m never enticed about overhyped products in general. If something, hype works towards distancing me from something, not the other way around. That being said, I’ve recently been sent a pair of privately owned KZ CRN with…
Dunu Falcon Pro
Falcon Pro are Dunu’s entry level model on their Eclipse lineup – the one featuring Zen / Zen Pro and Luna on its higher tiers. Featuring a single dynamic driver and a $219,99 price point Falcon Pro compete on a quite interesting market segment, populated – as usual – by a lot of underwhelming (or…
7HZ Timeless
Coblogger Kazi forwarded this pair of 7Hz Timeless to me for assessment and I spent some time listening and playing with them. As many already know 7Hz Timeless are based on a single quite sizeable (14.2mm) planar driver, which of course already sets the expectations in a sense. They come with a not totally insignificant…
Tanchjim Tanya
As some of my “twentyfive readers” might remember I’m very fond of my Tanchjim Oxygen, and I also found Tanchjim Darling seriously good too. So when the other month Tanchjim released Tanya as their first budget model I looked at the news with a sense of oblique smiling condescendence, and a sigh: it was quite…
Smabat Proto 1.0 – work in progress?
As a kid I certainly was fond of Lego blocks. Now as an old grumpy bear I’m much less into spending time building my own stuff, I prefer to pay for a professionally refined, ready to enjoy product or service. Yet, quite some time has passed from the former phase to the current one (more…
iBasso IT04 – a different one
I’ve been loaned an IT04 some time ago, and I spent quite some audition time on it – “time flies when you’re having fun” after all doesn’t it. This model has been released almost 4 years ago if I am not mistaken but it still holds the test of time as a very good mid-tier…
Oriveti OH500 – Nice With You If You Are Nice With Them
I recently had an opportunity to audition a pair of privately-owned Oriveti OH500 IEM – 1 dynamic and 4 balanced armature drivers – for a week and here’s my personal experience with them. At-a-glance Card PROs CONs Rich, nice timbre & personality. Careful pairing required. Avoid budget sources and destkop amps. Well calibrated warm-balanced tonality….
Campfire Andromeda 2020 : Out-Standing Identity
A sort of mythological entity guards the entrance of the over-kilobuck IEM market segment since 2016, and that’s Campfire’s ultrafamous Andromeda. For how odd it may sound I never got to audition those… In conjunction with the release of the new product revision, however, the gap has been filled and I’ve been provided a sample…
Tansio Mirai TSMR-6 – Shiny Glass Cannon
I recently had the opportunity to audition one pair of Tansio Mirai TSMR-6 IEMs, which – I anticipate – I did like quite a lot from the technical standpoint, although their presentation is not my cup of tea as they say. We are talking about quite interesting IEMs, priced just above $500 and featuring a…