Views 2,466 MIRPH-1 is a $749 USD pair of high-end headphones designed for comfort, and a smooth, laid-back listening. Today we will explore those headphones made of Resin, and explore comparison with other similarly priced headphones, including Crosszone CZ-10 Enhanced (995 USD), Focal Bathys (699 USD), Dan Clark Aeon 2 …
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
3. High End
Dan Clark Audio Expanse Summit-Fi Headphones – Enter The Driver Bliss
Views 3,526 Dan Clark Audio Expanse is a $3999 USD pair of high-end flagship headphones designed around Dan Clark Audio’s all-new 4th generation of planar magnetic drivers and the company’s breakthrough in Acoustic Metamaterial Tuning system, delivering a stunning presentation and depth. Today we will review the new DCA Expanse …
Feliks Audio Euforia Evo HiFi Tube Amplifier / Preamp – Dream Of The Richest Sound
Views 2,485 Feliks Audio Euforia Evo is a 2699 EURO / $2991 USD Headphone Amplifier based on the Tube Technology, being the ultimate achievement in OTL Technology, having a superb design, coming with 4 tubes in total, 2 for drive and 2 for PRE, along with a an improved design …
Audience ClairAudient 1+1 V5 Personal Reference Monitors – True Field Precision Envisage
Views 3,704 Audience ClairAudient 1+1 V5 is a $3900 USD pair of speakers, sold as a pair, with Dual Full-Range Drivers in Bipole configuration with two side firing passive radiators, and 5-Way binding posts. This is one of the most technologically advanced pair of bookshelf monitors, so despite the differences …
iBasso PB5 Osprey HiFi Tube Amplifier – Apex Analogic Musicality
Views 4,099 iBasso PB5 Osprey is a $1499 USD Summit-Fi Portable Tube Headphone Amplifier, featuring the most complex Dual Nutube 6P1 Tube setup manufactured by KORG and Noritake, being the 6th generation NuTubes, combined with 6 Batteries, and and a stepped volume attenuator to deliver the best sonic performance you …
FiiO FH19 HiFi IEMs – Euphoria Bass Extrema
Views 4,641 FiiO FH19 is currently FiiO’s high-end flagship IEM priced at $599 USD, coming warm and smooth with both dynamic and balanced armature drivers, including 2 Dynamic Drivers and 6 Balanced Armature drivers. As this is FiiO’s best IEM at this point, we are going to take a deep …
Soundz Flame High-End HiFi IEMs – Ignite The Dazzling Melody
Views 4,570 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 …
Audeze MM-100 HIFI Planar Headphones – Bleeding Edge Planar Precision And Consistency
Views 12,263 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 16,675 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 21,901 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 19,831 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 24,686 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 23,141 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 14,462 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 19,498 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 27,968 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 15,658 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 20,671 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 31,121 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 26,068 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 28,761 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 22,420 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 29,809 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 31,861 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 25,665 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 …