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Pretty little emerald
I had barely unboxed the GR10 before my wife was fondling it and telling me something every proud audiophile husband longs to hear from his siggy: "I want one". Our romance pretty much began with headphones. It wasn't exactly a minidisk swap, but it could have been. We've been jamming to trance and Broken Social Scene ever since. (She leaves John Denver to me.)
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Here are various balanced armature earphone speakers arranged and labelled by forum.ru fan, Hardcorist.
Cymbacavum, who pointed this out, says this:
“Those poor earphones…”
the Stage Series family
Cymbacavum's details Rhines Custom Monitors's Stage Series in straight, engaging English. (You won't find its like anywhere else.) I had only a few minutes to sit down with Rhine's Stage Series and custom earphones at Fujiya Avic's 2014 Spring Headphone Festival, but was very impressed.
Mr. T's explains his favourites:
“In the end, I found myself reaching for the Stage 3, Stage 4U, and Stage 5 the most.
With regard to details, I found the 4U and 5 to be most detailed. The 4U possesses almost a savant-like focus on the midrange and possesses neutrality comparable to the Stage 3, but with greater transparency in the mids. At the top of the food chain, the 5 is designed for more razzmatazz while retaining a lot of detail.
If the 4U is the evolution of the 3, then the 5 is the evolution of the 2, but perhaps that’d be simplifying things a bit too much. The Stage 5 is really a mix of the fun U-shaped signature and slight midrange warmth of the Stage 2 with the accuracy and focused forward projection of the Stage 3 and 4U.”
The entire article can be digested twice in ten minutes. There's no fluff. Check it out.
Rhines Custom Monitors - Stage Series
Then check out Rhines Custom Monitors.
Yesterday, the Noble Audio K10 arrived, at long last, to my doorstep. The balding postman that carried them in walked away with a sizeable chunk of money for tariffs, bless his heart. UPS, the company he represents, took 7 days to deliver the package from China to Japan. EMS would have taken three. Thank god for private business and competition and all that.
Read morePoor Lachy filmed this excellent 10:25 review with a cold. Nevertheless, his work is as clear and concise as it is free of distractions. It is also the first review of the XBA-H3 that I personally endorse.
Check out Lachlan's YouTube channel, and his webpage.
Wish Wizard a happy 42nd Happy Birthday by hitting up Noble Audio for a 20% savings on their high-end custom and universal inner ear monitors. Sale ends in ~21 hours from this post. (Sorry, I found out about this a bit late.)
You can keep up with the sale at Noble Audio's Facebook page.
And while you're waiting for your customs, be sure to check out Ω's take on the earphone that launched their brand, the awesome IEM 5,0.
Headfonics's MarcusD serves up a well-organised review of Westone's new W50.
“The Westone W50 is perhaps one of the hardest hitting bass signatures I have yet to hear from a universal BA IEM. It is leaps and bounds ahead of the older UM3X, perhaps even a little snappier and more forward than my UM Merlin’s and leaves the UE900 in it’s rear view mirror. Gone are the days when BA IEM’s are avoided when matching with beat heavy genres. Westone nailed this one and the W50 is anything but boring. Yet at the same time the slightly recessed mids and highs suffer with that kind of focus on the bass and it’s inherently dark tonality. It lacks dynamic headroom and top end articulation to really compete with some of the similarly priced heavyweight audiophile customs and IEM’s from AKG and Sennheiser.”
FitEar's MH335DW and Private 435 are excellent earphones, each with a completely different person in mind. Check out Headfonia for my full review of them.
Tokyo: an essay in headphones
Fujiya Avic's Spring 2014 show was great. But being the Disneyland of headphone events, no one person can capture it all in one go. In retrospect, I didn't really get around all that well. For better coverage, check out Headfonia's pictorial essay and the official Headfi Fujiya Avic 2014 thread.
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A great read by, tomscy2000, one of the industry's sanest, and most trustworthy voices. Tom's brand of sanity pushes him toward cables with the least resistance first, ease of use second. Ω's happy with something that feels good. As it happens, Estron's Linum BAX IEM cables appear to bridge the gap.
“The bottom line is that if you are happy with the stock sound of your IEM, but desire a cable that is much lighter and much lower profile, consider the Linum BaX. If you are a stage musician and need a thin, light cable that can blend invisibly with your performance attire, strongly consider the Linum BaX —- this cable really is made for you. It’s strong, it’s featherlight, and it’s nearly invisible.”
Tsukuba, Japan
