The 2026 Upgrade Cable Guide
Cable discussions are a major part of the headphone community. As long as I can remember, cables have been part of the hobby and also an important market share for dealers. However, the effect on sound quality has also been controversial for just as long. In this editorial I will...
IEM Targets: One Last Word
Let’s discuss IEM frequency response targets — probably for the last time on this blog. I’ve previously touched on this topic before. Many fellow headphone fans are putting a lot of effort into making sound objective and finding the ideal frequency response target. But I think there’s one oversight that...
SIAS: Celebrating the Success of Chi-Fi
An Introduction to SIAS Welcome to Shenzhen, the most famous city for the “Made in China” tag on electronic devices and the source for all of your IEM dreams. For the 18th time, Shenzhen invited audio fans and especially IEM nerds to the SIAS (Shenzhen International Audio Show) event. Just recently, I visited CIHE (Chinese International Headphone...
CIHE Beijing 2024 Show Impressions
In a spontaneous decision, I attended the 2024 China International Headphone Expo (CIHE) in Beijing this past weekend. I had not prepared for the show and was just informed about the event a few days earlier. So I went on a 1-day-trip to Beijing and was one of the hundred...
Peak Design Small Tech Pouch
This is a short feature of the newly released Peak Design Small Tech Pouch. I specifically bought it for everyday use. With this tech pouch, I can carry a small selection of IEM with me and also have enough space for sources and accessories. Too often did I miss a...
Stepping Up My Game
What is this blog even supposed to be? In my introductory post I said: “My intention is not to create another review blog.” But it has become exactly that. So I said to myself, “if you are going to do reviews anyway, then at least do it right and with...
Disclaimer
This is a general disclaimer concerning my blog and articles. You can jump a few paragraphs ahead if you do not care about how this blog came to life. Here is the actual disclaimer. I first got confronted with Head-Fi in 2009. I quickly realized you will not easily get...
What Is It Like to Be an Audiophile?
I consider myself to be an audiophile. But what does that even mean? Does that automatically make me an elitist and intolerant consumer who laughs and ridicules every audio product that „casuals“ know? I certainly hope not. High-fidelity audio is a hobby. It is striving to reproduce music for private...
Caricatures of Headphone Users
This is a tongue in cheek characterization of the different users that appear in headphone-related discussion boards. Please don’t be offended. Image taken from the movie Who Am I?. All rights reserved. Average Consumer The average consumer makes up for at least 95% of headphone users. Of course I condense...
Constructing an Audiophile IEM Reference Target
Discussing RAW frequency responses is hot right now. More and more audiophiles are starting to create their own measurement setups. So did I. But what worth are raw curves if you don’t know how to interpret them? Following my very general introduction, I want to try to create a more...
Understanding RAW Frequency Graphs
First off, I should apologize because this post is long overdue. I have been sharing raw measured frequency graphs without ever explaining them. So I finally want to catch up and help with the basics and understanding how to read raw frequency graphs. Very important for anyone to know is...
Souvenirs from Japan
I am back from my holiday and I have at least a little audio content for my blog. I visited relatives in Tianjin, China, and flew to Japan from there. It was indeed an awesome trip and possibly the most fun I had all year. But I will not bore...