We review the qdc 3SH – a triple driver IEM that performs with exceptional sweetness and grace in the midrange frequencies.
Today I’ll be reviewing the Heir Audio 4AI S. I couldn’t find too many reviews about this company’s products, but luckily that turned out to be a non-issue, as the 4AI S is quite good. Priced at $400, this IEM certainly doesn’t come cheaply. Is it worth the money?
Not satisfied with having just a superstar pure balanced armature and a pure dynamic driver product selection, Campfire Audio has also decided to begin their foray into hybrid territory with their latest release – the Dorado.
IEMs with hybrid configurations (ones that combine both dynamic drivers and balanced armatures) are getting more and more popular these days, and our first review of a hybrid is none other than the Oriolus mk2, which is already highly acclaimed in the audiophile community.
In 2013 JH Audio announced the Siren Series of in-ear monitors, with each piece named after a famous rock song about women. Roxanne was the first, with sisters Layla and Angie joining thereafter, and Rosie being the latest addition to the growing lineup. Priced at a prohibitive $2499 USD, Layla is the most expensive of the bunch, and also the most pricey universal iem in the world at the time of its release – until the even more expensive Layla 2 donned in an all titanium housing succeeded it that is. Welcome to insanity.
Continue reading “Jerry Harvey Audio Layla – Larger Than Life”
As I’ve gone deeper into this audiophile hobby, I’ve found that my hometown of Hong Kong also has developed some small indie companies who have started making earphones. Apart from LEAR, Tralucent, and HUM, I recently discovered Lutex Audio. I contacted Lutex Audio and paid them a visit to find out more about their current offerings – the Lutex Audio B1, a single dynamic driver design and the R1, which is a single balanced armature design. Continue reading “Lutex Audio – Affordable & Made in Hong Kong”
Curious about this locally designed and built product, we decided to pay a visit to the headquarters of HUM, the Hong Kong based company responsible for creating the 2 BA driver HUM Pristine as well as the Pervasion music player to see what the fuss was all about. Continue reading “A visit to the HUM headquarters”
Established in 2006, Audio Line Out (“ALO”) made its name by building high end audio cables for audio equipment. In 2015, ALO announced the creation of another branch that would be responsible for making IEMs called Campfire Audio (“CA”). Since then, CA has launched an impressive lineup of IEMs: the single BA Orion, the dual BA Nova, the single DD Beryllium driver Lyra and the four BA Jupiter. Their latest 5 driver flagship offering, the Andromeda caught my eye and I decided to take a leap and purchased it.
Continue reading “Campfire Audio Andromeda – Soaring into Space”
Back when I was still in high school I blindly bought a pair of Shure earphones without knowing anything about audio. At that point in time I hailed from an illustrious personal audio track record, such as having upgraded from the basic Apple ibuds to the Apple ‘in-ear EarPods’. The source was a sky blue Sony MD player, and listening to soapy break-up ballads from NSYNC, A1 and Westlife without ever having experienced any break-ups while cruising in a Chinese taxi in the Nanjing rain at a crawling speed was as good as I thought things could get. I remember feeling nothing after getting the Shure, I got it partly because of the brand name, and partly because I simply wanted to spend. Music listening soon became an indispensable part of my life, and somehow I splurged on the then Shure flagship E500PTH (push-to-hear). Continue reading “Shure SE846 – The Sound and the Fury”
