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 moreHeadfi: Brooko's encyclopedic FLC 8S review
Sit back. Relax. Grab a cup of coffee and a cut of brownie. Brooko's Head-fi FLC Technology FLC 8S review is worthy of the annals of Anandtech's OSX reviews. Even the disclaimer is meaty. It takes three trackpad swipes in OSX to get to the bottom from the top, so make sure your cup is large and your cut even larger.
Read moreinstant ohmage: Jays new q-Jays
The original q-Jays was toyish, and, as evidenced by myriad cable breakages, ill-prepared for portable use. But because it salamandered into even the smallest ear, it was marvellously comfy. Its size, fit, and signal clarity bowled over many earphone lovers. Today’s q-Jays is nothing more, and nothing less than a brilliant, iterative upgrade to the original.
Read moreHow big is the Lear NS-U1 earphone?
In my Headfonia review I wended on about the fit issues I experienced with the LEAR NS-U1 earphone, most of which are due to its immense size. I hope that the above photograph illustrates just how big it is.
Read moreA little about insertion angles
"Thousands of ears fondled, thousands more scanned”, should read the marketing blurb of every high-end earphone. Most assuredly, it isn’t all about sound.
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 moreAndromeda and the demands of the opinion cult
Insanely-active headfi user, moedawg140’s objection to incessant reader demands to compare TOTL earphone against TOTL rivals, is spot on. A non-engineering review is written from opinion. No matter how assiduous, extended comparisons between earphone A and earphone B reveal nothing but personal bias; more colloquially, they reveal that we all hear different. Obsessing over and acquiescing to reader demands is a never-ending, soul-destroying campaign of self-flagellation and risk. Self flagellation: kowtowing to a single demand necessarily insinuates more of the same in the future. Risk: maintaining a fleet of TOTL earphones, amps, DACs, or DAPs, is expensive both to the wallet and to the attic.
Read moreCampfire Audio Andromeda - excitement engine
Achebe oversimplified things. Some things fall apart. Others compound into something exquisite. Baby bum-smooth Andromeda is as polished next to Jupiter as Jupiter is against a pre-production version of itself. It is my - perhaps self-serving - opinion that the two earphone manufacturers most violently busting through the limits of industrial manufacturing and branding ceilings are Campfire Audio and Noble Audio.
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