AXPONA 2017: Sonoma M1 Headphone System
I’ve written about the Sonoma M1s before but what made their AXPONA room different this time was that these were no longer in prototype form. In fact, the [...]
stax
Dr’s Orders: Push it to the limit
A good Dr. should never insist on having his patients pushing themselves to the limit but this is audio and the limit of what is possible is a good thing with only one major [...]
Ultimate Electrostatic: Woo Audio WES and Stax SR-009
I’ve been spending a lot of time with personal audio systems of late, portable and not-portable alike. Even as I wandered the paths of dynamic and planar, in-ear and [...]
Review: JansZen Valentina Active
by John Grandberg I’m a headphone guy at heart. I believe all my readers pretty much know that by now. As such, I spend far more time listening to headphones than [...]
Review: HiFiMAN HE1000 flagship headphones
by John Grandberg The proliferation of really-high-end headphones is undeniable. Back in the day, a $500 headphone was considered expensive, and the few thousand-dollar-plus [...]
High End 2015: Questyle
“Current Mode Amplification” is a magical phrase that brings out the inner meerkat from the headphone enthusiast crowd, and will cause spontaneous synchronized [...]
RMAF 2014: An Education in STAX
STAX electrostatic headphones — or “earspeakers,” as they call them — are near-legendary. I’ve been hearing about them since I first started to [...]
CAS 2014: Headmasters, with Eddie Current, Questyle, Audeze, Headamp
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 [...]
CAF 2013: Woo Audio
Spent some time hanging out with my pal Simon from Woo Audio, lamenting about how hard it is to set up a demo room at an audio show. All that fussing with positioning, room [...]