Views 4,307 Soundz Flame is a 990 Euro / $1101 USD pair of In-Ear Monitors designed for recording / mixing / performing artists, but also for music lovers who want to hear the accurate burning passion of a live musician. Today we will review the Flame and also compare them …
High End is where the effect of diminishing returns kicks in the hardest and you have to spend hundreds or thousand of USD to chase the last few details in music. This is where most of the fun is for enthusiasts, like in every hobby, but it can be a frustrating area, especially if you don’t have a lot of disposable income. The price range starts around 500 USD, and everything above is considered high-end in the audiophile hobby.
You can find my reviews on high end products below, and also the best high end products here: https://amzn.to/3zKGm1F
High End
Audeze MM-100 HIFI Planar Headphones – Bleeding Edge Planar Precision And Consistency
Views 12,014 Audeze MM-100 is a $399 USD pair of over-the-ear planar magnetic headphones, designed for studio usage and music lovers, with a heavily improved comfort compared to other studio headphones, with the epic Audeze build quality and a low impedance, and high SPL, designed to work well with any …
Crosszone CZ-10 Enhanced HIFI Headphones – Atmospheric Sonic Field Localization
Views 16,473 Crosszone CZ-10 Enhanced is a $995 USD pair of over-the-ear headphones made with the aim of creating the most pleasing sound and tuning, with a wide and natural soundstage, and they are a retuning of the original CZ-10, the enhanced version aiming to deliver a better sonic quality. …
MUSICIAN PEGASUS II R2R HiFi DAC – Revealer Of Hidden Worlds
Views 21,623 Musician Pegasus II is an R2R $1099 USD DAC sold and fulfilled by Aoshida, and produced by Musician. Today we will review and explore the Pegasus II and compare it to other high-end flagship DACs, including Dethonray Listening M1 (2599 USD), Denafrips Ares II R2R DAC (800 USD), …
SWEEAR HE-Live5 HIFI IEMs – Holy Driver Of Pure Bliss
Views 19,599 Sweear HE-Live5 is a $899 USD pair of IEMs with one 10mm custom dynamic driver, and 4 balanced armatures. They also come with a modular cable, high-end packaging, and a sound that will surely satisfy even the pickiest listener. Today we will review the Sweear HE-Live 5 and …
HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La Headphone System – Brilliant Electrostatic HIFI Delight
Views 24,472 HIFIMAN Mini Shangri-La is a 2300 USD Electrostatic headphone system, composed of the Mini Shangri-La Headphones which cost 1100 USD, and the Electrostatic Amplifier which costs 1500 USD, with the system having a better price combined than if you bought each individually. Today we are going to review …
iBasso D16 Taipan 1 Bit FPGA DAC AMP with 128 DACs – The Ultimate Listening Experience Of Cascaded 16 Sets of 8E PWM-DACs
Views 22,841 iBasso D16 is a $1499 USD Digital to Analog Converter and Super Class A Headphone Amplifier, designed as a portable unit, with what I consider to be the most unique DAC tech we have seen this year. I am talking about 1Bit DACs, with 16 sets of cascaded …
Astral Acoustics Eclipse IEM Cable – Light From Across The Universe
Views 14,326 Astral Acoustics Eclipse is a $950 USD HiFi IEM Cable with all connectors and terminations included, and today we will review the Eclipse, pairing it with multiple IEMs in the process. Given the price point, we will also compare Astral Acoustics Eclipse with multiple IEM cables, including Astral …
Soundz Blade V2 Universal Greek HIFI IEMs – Dazzling Music Abound
Views 19,348 Soundz Blade V2 is a 750 EURO / $812 USD pair of high-end IEMs designed with a switch to either make the sound bright and neutral, perfect for monitoring, or add body, bass impact and more weight to music, turning it to a more enjoyable listening experience. Today …
ECdesigns PowerDAC-SX Stereo HIFI Integrated DAC – Ultimate Levels Of Power And Control
Views 27,683 ECdesigns PowerDAC-SX is a 3450 EURO / $3700 USD DAC which can directly drive speakers, and balanced headphones without using any amplifiers. It comes with a remote, and it is one of the most interesting and unique stereo sound reproduction solutions in the whole world. Today we will …
Ricable Dedalus Speaker Elite Speaker Cable – Smoothly Shielded For HiFi Music Reproduction
Views 15,475 Ricable Dedalus Speaker Elite is a 882 EURO / $950 USD pair of cables for speakers, with this price tag being for today’s 3 meter pair, as the price is lower for 2 meters, at 778 EURO / $840 USD, and increasing up to 1095 EURO / $1185 …
Elipson W35 Xi Bluetooth Speaker – Absolute Sphere Connected Sound
Views 18,335 Elipson W35 Xi is a 699 Euro / $750 USD High-End Flagship Bluetooth Speaker designed as a sphere, coming to take the wireless market by surprise, and in this review we will study the design, placement, usage, and how it sounds like. Given the price point, it competes …
HIFIMAN Prelude Pre / Amp – Bold Leader Headphone Amplifier
Views 30,903 HIFIMAN Prelude is a $2499 USD full Class A Headphone Amplifier, with a Mos-Fet High Current Output, which can convert even the single ended input to fully balanced, with ALPS Potentiometer, and a whopping 10W of power into a 32 OHM impedance. We are reviewing the leader of …
Pylon Diamond 30 mkII Stereo HIFI Floorstanding Tower Speakers – Pure Audiophile Euphoria
Views 25,826 Pylon Diamond 30 mkII is a $ 3000 USD pair of high-end Speakers designed in Poland by Pylon Audio, and they come to redefine what we can expect from a relatively affordable price point for speakers. As a floorstanding tower speaker, it is the modernised version of the …
HIFIMAN Goldenwave Serenade – Himalaya PRO R2R DAC AMP
Views 28,515 HIFIMAN Goldenwave Serenade is a $999 USD DAC and Headphone Amplifier, with a Himalaya PRO R2R DAC inside, with a new FPGA algorithm and 0.01% precision resistors, and with a THD rate of -6 dB, 0.0012%. Today we will review it and compare it to Dethonray Listening M1 …
Crosszone CZ-8a Enhanced Boutique Headphones – Soundstage Extending Globally
Views 22,229 Crosszone CZ-8a Enhanced is a $1700 USD new headphone released by Crosszone Japan, as an improved version of their original Crosszone CZ-8a, which I reviewed and found to be a really unique, interesting headphone with a wide soundstage. The new version comes to replace the original, with a …
High-End Munich 2024 Audio Show Review – Music Fun In Germany
Views 29,640 High-End Munich, held in Munchen Germany is the world-wide largest annual audio show that takes place in Europe, and this year we had the best time so far, as we learned a few tips and tricks from the previous year, but we also learned about the new launches …
Campfire Cascara Universal IEMs – Full Deep Bass Delight
Views 31,657 Campfire Cascara is a $499 USD IEM or In-Ear Monitor with a single dynamic driver, designed for ergonomics, comfort and as the little brother of the Bonneville that we recently reviewed. Today we will explore the bassy delights of Cascara, and compare it to other similarly priced IEMs, …
Keces Audio Ebravo Essential Streamer – The Digital Transport Actually Makes A Difference
Views 25,474 Keces Audio Ebravo is a $599 USD Streamer / Digital Transport designed to improve the audio performance of high-end audiophile enthusiast systems and equipment. Today we will take a listen and see if it brings any changes to the setups we’ll be implementing it in, including high-end systems …
Dethonray Listening M1 DAC / Headphone Amplifier – Beautiful And Deep Music Sound
Views 35,642 Dethonray Listening M1 is a $2599 USD DAC AMP made for desktop, with a really sleek design, ultimate sound architecture, and as we wil explore today, a sound that’s unlike anything we heard before. Given its price point, we will compare it to the best of the best …
iBasso DX260 DAP – Epic Octa DAC Music Player
Views 31,258 iBasso DX260 is a $949 USD DAP / Digital Audio Player, with a an Octa DAC configuration, balanced headphone output, Qualcomm 660 SoC, Hi-Res Playback, FIR interpolation filter, and a dynamic range up to 134 dB. Today we will review it, every aspect of its usage, and compare …
FIR Audio e12 Electron Series Universal IEM – Strength Of A King
Views 35,465 FiR Audio e12 from the Electron Series is a $1799 USD IEM or In-Ear Monitor designed with a plethora of unique technologies by FIR Audio, including the SwapX 2-Pin, Tactile Bass, and Atom Venting. Today we will dive in the world of its sound, and review the e12, …
Focal Bathys Bluetooth Headphones – French Fashion And Sound
Views 28,410 Focal Bathys is a $699 USD pair of Bluetooth headphones made by Focal, a huge French Company specialized in audiophile products, and those come with a Bluetooth 5.1 connection, 3.5mm Jack input, USB Type-C port for charging and data, and with ANC or Active Noise Canceling. The current …
FiiO Q15 Portable DAC AMP – Sweet Sounding Dynamics Master
Views 33,427 FiiO Q15 is a $399 USD portable DAC or Digital To Analog Converter, and Headphone Amplifier, with two headphone outputs, a smartphone mode, and with a huge driving power, but low noise for IEMs. Today we will review it and compare the new high-performance FiiO unit to other …
Keces S300+ Stereo HIFI Power Amplifier – Speaker Utopia Sound Master
Views 36,335 Keces S300+ is a $3499 USD high-end flagship Stereo HIFI Power Amplifier, with both Balanced and Unbalanced inputs, High and Low Bias modes, and with a power consumption of up to 1000W, able to use Loop Triggers, designed to drive the beefiest, most picky of speakers out there. …