In Ryuzoh’s clutches are a Plenue D and an AK100 mkii, mine both. The latter is scheduled to return by 22 May along with my newly-balanced Chord Mojo. The former- well, that depends.
Read moreFujiya Avic 2016 Spring Show: racks, bikes, and stacks
For most of Fujiya Avic’s latest headphone show I was busy camera whoring. As a result I removed just ten memories from the event with my Leica, four with an iPad, and four with an iPhone. Of the photos I took with my Leica, just seven are safe for work. And because I’m not a great iPhoneographer, I came away with just two usable mobile images.
Read moreAstell & Kern's wholesome AK300
FitEar/Fostex TE100 hybrid collaboration earphone
There's more to Fujiya Avic headphone festivals than drinks with the mates. TE100, the fruit of a partnership between FitEar and Fostex, will be on display. It is a dynamic/balanced armature hybrid with what looks like a metal treble tube.
Read moreTRRRS 4,4mm: JEITA's new balanced headphone standard
Phileweb inked four pages (Japanese) about a new, bigger, sleevier balanced headphone standard devised by the Japan Electronics and Information Industries Association. JEITA's reason for further complicating our world? There were too many connectors. Naturally, the world needed a new one. They didn't want to cooperate with extant designs (page 2). 2,5mm and 3,5mm were too small and 6,3mm was too large. 4,4mm was just right (page 3).
Read moreOcharaku Sakura Plus has landed
An afternoon of good tea and shop talk at Mr. Yamagishi's office in Tokyo, I came back with a Sakura Plus review loaner. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I drank too much tea. Nor am I embarrassed that the Sony PCM-D100 recorder tickled my fancy. Together (and I like to think that Mr. Yamagishi enjoyed my presence) we geeked out over high altitude tea, weird audiophile recordings, and of course: Sakura Plus (black) and Akazakura Plus (red).
Read moreHitler finds out about Head pie
Damon (not Matt) is hard to avoid. In real life, he's a relapsing skateboarder. On Facebook he's the master of GIFs and memes. In addition to to the wildly popular Head pie Facebook community, he's found a new toy: Hitler finds out plug in videos.
The above video is a shot-over-the-bows of everything from Rockbox to RMAA to bandwagon purchases and useless audio reviews and reviewers - in this video CNET shouldering the main burden. And, it's a tribute to how hard Matt works at making it look like he doesn't work.
The man's absurd and creative genius plays out every day at Head pie. By all means, check it out.
Phatlab Audio's ergonomic PHAntasy
All its ducks in a row, Phantasy’s limber, light, and open sound is spot on for a large swath of high-impedance headphones. It is my favourite-sounding among battery-powered SET amps. It also happens to be the best designed battery-powered amp I’ve ever used.
Read moreDAR: Heck-a-slammin' IEMs from Noble Audio
Having shot Noble Audio's commercial CIEMs and UIEMs since the end of 2014, I am intimately familiar with the look, feel, and build of each and every model. John Darko puts the competitive IEM market into perspective.
Read moreFrayed in Japan - Venturecraft Valoq
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