The only current earphone review more encyclopedic than Brooko's review of the FLC8S is Just your random audio blog's review of Ocharaku's Akazakura Plus. It's harder to follow, and nowhere near as well shot, but it goes into terrible detail about the technology powering one of today's uniquest earphones from one of today's uniquest manufacturers.
Read moreA wide angle on Ocharaku's Sakura Plus
Ocharaku’s skin is showing its Grado. In four years, Ocharaku have released about as many earphones, all of which have evolved at a snail’s pace. Not Grado GR-series little, but close. Flat4, for instance, has kept the same shape, swapping metal for wood, and vice versa. For nut lovers, a great-sounding acorn branched away from the main family.
Read moreOcharaku Sakura Plus/Akazakura Plus 400Hz shift
The above illustration (found here) demonstrates the dimensional differences between phase correction tubes in Ocharaku's latest Sakura Plus and Akazakura Plus earphones.
Read moreA date with Ocharaku's Sakura Plus & Akazakura Plus
While my impressions of Sakura Plus are wobbly and immature, my knowledge of Mr. Yamagishi’s office is explicitly adult. Ocharaku occupies a narrow bit of space in Kyodo, a famously old and comfortable part of Tokyo. And, as ‘cha’ means tea and ‘raku’ means ease, there’s one thing you can’t miss when meeting Mr. Yamagishi. Tea. Good tea.
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 moreOcharaku Flat4-Sakura Plus / Akazakura Plus debut and touch and try event
On 5 March Oak Village and Ocharaku’s latest Flat4-櫻Plus (Flat4-Sakura Plus), Flat4-緋櫻Plus (Flat4-Akazakura Plus) will be unveiled at an event called “Challenging the limits of earphone manufacturing” in Jiyugaoka. Both companies will talk up their awesome tech and techniques and at the end, attendees will get to touch and try both earphones.
Read moreThe Ocharaku Flat-4 KAEDE Type II
Because I have some drinking to get to, I'll keep this short. Here's a copy/paste job from my latest review at Headfonia:
Read moreOcharaku Donguri-Keyaki - Good Wood
At long last, my review of the Ocharaku Donguri-Keyaki is up at Headfonia. It is a good wood.
Re: rise from your grave! Ocharaku Kaede TypeII
Mr. Yamagishi probably got too many emails. Probably too many tweets, and Facebook requests. Kaede freaking rocked. The world wanted more. Here's my review of it.
And while KURO was a smashing follow up, it wasn't the same thing. Considering that Kaede was a limited run of 200, nothing could be. Maybe Kaede TypeII will be; a lot of hopes are riding on it.
Read moreHow to balance your Ocharaku Flat4
Headfi's CosmicHolyGhost gets credit for finding this article explaining how to balance your Ocharaku Flat4. Ω is a BIG fan of the Flat4 series, especially KURO and KAEDE.
NOTE: the article is in Chinese. All hardware modifications to the Flat4 will void your guarantee.