To some, describing a headphone as “fun” is akin to the kiss of death. The calling for linearity occasionally spurs dynamic swings in opinions, and even greater judgments in the comment sections and forums. Whatever […]
Dear Santa, All I want for Xmas is my RMAF by Eric Franklin Shook I’m not the long winded bullshit artist you might have originally thought or hoped me to be. I lean towards the […]
A photojournal by Eric Franklin Shook I have the luxury of lifestyle to live nearly alone and without neighbors. Full-range speakers, big amplifiers, a large music collections and an unhinged volume knob are not a […]
How many Simolians do you have to part with these days to get good sound? I mean, really? Is it even possible, or just a frustrating pipe dream? That seems to have been Topic A […]
This CES was my first. Thing is, it just might be my last. Consensus among fellow journalists, hi-fi manufacturers, distributors, and bricks & mortar owners is that it’s no longer a good fit for home audio, […]
By Brian Hunter This weekend was a steamy one for residents of southern California. Temperatures rose above 100 degrees in certain parts of the sunny city of angels, but many audiophiles were keeping cool within […]
Recently in Atlanta, headphone enthusiasts from all over the Southeast gathered at the local Marriott Century City to hear the latest from some of the best manufacturers of portable audio gear. The was the culmination […]
Tribes. We all belong to, or identify with one whether we know it or not. Some of us are very cognizant of our tribe, and let our freak flag fly. Others are more guarded about […]
[Something witty here.] That’s what I first wrote as placeholder text when I started putting this post together, but looking at it now as I write this, I think I’ll just leave it as a […]
If a big stack of gear is your idea of “divide and conquer” in the world of personal audio, then Questyle is your one-stop shop. Truly impressive was their “Golden Reference Stack”: two CMA800R Golden […]
Here we are, mid-November. It’s a glorious time to be alive. I say that with full acknowledgement of the “challenges”, which is a nice euphemism for “a can of worms I’m happy to open, but […]
“Current Mode Amplification” is a magical phrase that brings out the inner meerkat from the headphone enthusiast crowd, and will cause spontaneous synchronized head-swiveling. Only a couple of companies are pursuing this interesting approach to amplification […]
By Lee Shelly Note: Many of the sources have already been covered in the Amplification Report. Those include the combination DAC/Amplifiers like The Codex from Ayre Acoustics, The Woo Audio WA8, The Chord Hugo […]
By Lee Shelly Schiit Audio The first stop I made (pre- show!), was to the Schiit booth. When I got there, Jason Stoddard was fighting with his flagship system … no sound was coming out … […]
The portable digital audio player (DAP) market has heated up considerably in the last 12 months, much to the surprise and chagrin of just about anyone who owns an iPhone. But it’s true — with […]
Next to a rain-soaked dumpster full of old Altec drivers, the Headmasters ballroom had to be the saddest place in the HiFi world. The Westin’s air walls are a perfectly uniform shade of County Jail […]
Acoustic Zen Technologies president Robert Lee is a master at making things disappear. Stuff like distortion, frequency irregularities and resonances. But as I sat listening to his rarely exhibited flagship speaker, the Maestro ($43,000 a […]
ADL Alpha Design Labs by Furutech (aka, ADL) had a small personal-audio table dotted with some tasty bits, including the new A1 and X1 portable headphone amp/DAC designed to pair with Android or Apple devices, […]
In what seemed tantamount to a divorce, I found Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen demoing a system without tubes. I don’t think this has ever happened in my experience, and quite frankly, I was worried. […]
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