DUNU Blanche: Is It the Cable?
Oh my god, a cable review. Seriously? „Klaus, what happened to you?“ Let me explain. And, welcome to my DUNU Blanche sort-of-review. Preface I am not known for promoting voodoo in the audio realm and I usually have a very practical approach in terms of sound enhancement. I have experimented...
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...
Frequency Response: 64 Audio A18s
64 Audio has released a new addition to the studio & stage monitoring flagship A18 Tzar. The new A18s is advertised as being more suited towards professionals, making room for the A18t to grab the audiophile audience. Well, ideally I don’t see a difference in the demands of either, so...
Lotoo PAW S1 Filter Presets
The Lotoo PAW S1 USB hifi-dongle is a new audiophile portable DAC. It has a very efficient circuitry that creates a clean, powerful and energy-saving headphone amplification for smartphones, tablets, laptops, video consoles and many other devices with a USB connection. It also supports Apple devices with a Lightning connection...
Lotoo PAW S1 Firmware Update 1.0.0.7
I received this firmware update a bit early. I am using it since Tuesday, June 23rd. So far it seems to run stable and works great. Unfortunately, I don’t have the changelog. Just sharing for those who asked for it. Download at your own risk. Download: PAW-S1_1.0.0.7.zip
Flavor of the Month: DUNU Luna
DUNU is a well-respected audiophile-first company based out of Shenzhen. After stepping outside their OEM roots, DUNU have shown strong presence in the Head-Fi community. Some of their models enjoyed great international success. Unfortunately, the brand was never well distributed in Europe. I feel bad to admit that this is...
Looking Sharp
Not only is the Hugo 2 one of the sharpest looking DACs ever designed, it also enables the user to see the details in the audio source clearly.
Flavor of the Month: final A8000
The final A8000 are high-end reference earphones that use a single true beryllium driver in a complex acoustic chamber. As the Japanese company’s flagship, they promise to impress with impeccable clarity, speed and soundstage. Having succeeded in that, I award them my special flavor of the month showcase. The final...
Quick Impressions: SoundMAGIC HP1000
I share my quick impressions on the SoundMAGIC HP1000. The HP1000 are the company’s latest flagship reference headphones and are competitively priced at 269 USD excl. tax or the equivalent of 299 €. SoundMAGIC SoundMAGIC is the company of the audio engineer and sound designer Tony Xu. The name might...
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...
64 Audio tia Fourté & Michael Jackson
This article is a review of the 64 Audio tia Fourté with a focus on the music of Michael Jackson. A lot has been said about the 64 Audio tia Fourté. Now that the limited run on the reworked Fourté Noir is over, I finally spent some time with the...
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...