Had a great first day at the High-End Munich 2022. Met up with a lot of people, especially Vitalie Sandu of SoundNews.net. Couldn’t meet Resolve and Cameron because it was almost afternoon by the time I got there and I had to talk with some people quickly.

Tried the Kann Alpha Max, proper upgrade over OG Kann Alpha. The OS is still sluggish but the mids on these are noticeably more organic. Has the same bass punch and crystalline treble as the original so I think this is a good upgrade.

Then met the awesome people at Final Audio, and tried their latest TWS which I forgot the model number of (will take note tomorrow). They also had Stax SR-X9000 which is a phenomenal headphone. The driver is a thing of beauty, just check the picture.

Spirit Torino from Italy had the Mistral which sounds “grand” for a wireless headphone. Will check it out even further tomorrow. On the DAC side, DCS Bartok Rossini is a good one that I tried today but yeah well it didn’t sound like something exorbitantly exceptional. Need a closer listen tomorrow (today I listened the Meze Elite and DCA Ether 2 on them).

Spirit Torino also had the craziest headphones I’ve seen till now: Spirit Torino Valkyria. Costs $12K, made to order, Titanium housings, weighs like 800gms or so, and of course the cable is fixed. There are also some ruby-like materials inside and a carbon-fiber driver housing because why not.

As for the sound: these slam like a freight-train. One of the most energetic headphones I’ve heard, even though there was no sibilance or harshness upon initial listen. Also they have a very “grand” sense of stage height, though stage depth and width didn’t seem as impressive as the Stax X9000 or the good ol’ HD800S.

Also tried Campfire Audio’s new flagship, the triple-dynamic one. It has very good bass and an energetic signature. Gotta listen again tomorrow to form longer impressions. Mr. Ken Ball was also very welcoming and we had a good chat about the pricing of this, which is more about the exclusivity than sheer performance over the Solaris 2020.

Met with the legend Mr. Axel Grell himself (he came up with the legendary Sennheiser HD-series models as well as the Sennheiser HE-1). 

Had a really nice discussion with him regarding his tuning philosophy and how he looks at the recent trend of “target-hitting” headphones and earphones. Needless to say, he’s one of the coolest guys around.

Also had the chance to try out the Heavys headphones, that are marketed towards metal-heads. I have pre-ordered one already so couldn’t help trying the current prototype out. In terms of sound, the tuning is nearly finalized. I offered some feedback regarding certain design decisions as they wanted to hear my thoughts. Let’s see how the final unit turns out.

As for the sound of the Heavys, they were quite coherent for multi-driver headphones. Upper-mids are not drowned out at all, distortion guitars are put forward. Vocals also come through well. Cymbals are present without being sharp or spiky. Decent separation in fast section, with double pedals being separated from snare hits.

Surprise of the High-End Munich show for me was the Meze 109 Pro (I think that’s the model number). They are still in prototype stage but if the final thing sounds even slightly better than this one, well, we got a potential winner.

I asked the Meze Audio reps about some technical details and they’ve shared some information. So far, it’s using a 50mm bio-cellulose dynamic driver. The driver housing is also encased in a Beryllium-plated metal that probably does something, did not get into those details since I was running short of time.

As for the sound, it’s got really nice bass with rich texturing and excellent layering. The mids were warm and smooth but didn’t lack detail. Staging was impressive with surprisingly good depth and height.

Couldn’t test these further but knowing that the pricing will be under $1000, I am really excited to try them out once they hit the market. Planned release: Q3 2022. Looking forward to these.

The Stax SR-X9000 are stupendously good. One of the best headphones out there, without a doubt. They have incredibly lifelike stage depth that rivals that of Susvara. In terms of bass and raw resolution, I think they are better than the Susvara, with the SR-X9000 having a bit more snap in the treble. Susvara still has that romantic smoothness, but the Stax are just as good, in a different way.

I also met up with iFi Audio reps, courtesy of WODAudio where Werner was very welcoming and we had a great discussion about headphones and gear in general. I listened to the new iFi Pro iDSD and Pro iCAN stack, paired with the ZMF Atrium. Needless to say, this was an excellent setup and I look forward to reviewing the iFi Pro stack in the near future.

High End Munich 2022 – Photographic Impressions

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And we keep it like that.

However, running a blog costs money….web hosting, domain name, and also postage (“Head-Fi tours” etc.), and sometimes import/brokerage fees (“DHL, Fedex etc. are self indulgent”). PayPal does not seem to work for us – no “donations” coming in. So we (or rather I) decided to get a single, exclusive sponsor to support our website costs….and nothing more. In fact, the compensation received will NOT be enough to cover our shipping/import fees.

And we were picky in our choice. HifiGo are a reputable company that have proven reliable as mediator in warranty issues and have been fully transparent in the past. Our relationship has built on 2-3 years of loose collaboration. Earlier, HifiGo had sent us review units, but this burden has shifted to the manufacturers. Lately we did not receive any review “samples” from HifiGo.

But even if we did, would it affect our reviews? Well, I am the guy who has carried the site’s cost alone, so I will be the sole “beneficiary”. The money will underlie proper taxation. But we are six reviewers, five of which remain unaffected by this. So, in the worst case scenario, there will be only one bad apple: me!

As for HifiGo…they have the benefit of not being crammed in between a mass of other ads. We appreciate them as our exclusive partner.

This means for audioreviews.org: despite this one ad, we will remain non-commercial as we do not even break even in the big picture.

And what’s in it for you? You won’t have any interruptions in your reading flow…no invasive ads in the text, no nasty popups, and not that annoying garbage when attempting to load a new page. ALSO: very fast page load times. Our front page takes about 1 s to load completely, comparable sites up to 9 s (check for yourself: https://gtmetrix.com).

In summary, this cooperation is a win-win-win situation. What else do we want?

Until next time…keep on listening!

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HifiGo

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We have no commercial interests. Our goal is to inform our readership while being learner drivers. We strive to deliver quality. We are not interested in freebies but in accessing interesting gear – and in reporting about it. Your stuff will be returned as long as you cover cost. And we have borrowed a lot, also from private sources, to build the portfolios we are proud of.

We started almost exclusively with iems (currently about 300) but later branched out into essentially everything portable audio, including desktop devices.

But we never intended to earn money through our reviews – it has always been a labour of love – and we will keep it like that.

One thing that always put a bad taste in our mouths is affiliate links: having an incentive to write favourable reviews is an absolute no for each one of us. I’d rather chew my hand off before succumbing to such blatant conflict of interest. Sorry, can’t do it.

Nevertheless, some companies insisted on such – simply to track their sales. In these rare cases, we donated the complete revenue to a Chicago charity supporting stage musicians through covid 19.

I am personally of the opinion we should drop these links altogether. After all, we are no salespeople, be it with commission or without. We see ourselves as consumer advocates, audio aficionados, and…geeks.

And since we are not guided by generating income, we can focus on less popular (but important) products such as power supplies or USB decrappifiers.

However, the blog has a basic operating cost (web hosting, domain name…). And we may need a better web template to improve our appearance. So far, I have been stuck with these expenses. These do not include DHL/UPS/Fedex processing fees, imports taxes, or shipping gear between us for a second review…which affect all of us.

We learn, blogging costs money.

How to offset these costs? Paypal has generated $0 in the last year. Nada. Zilch. I tried Google advertising on their auto setting…absolutely horrible. Google took this site completely hostage – at a meagre return of <$40 (needs to be topped up to $100 to be paid out). Scrap it.

What are the alternatives ? I was thinking of approaching companies we “like” to sponsor us with ads. Companies that, in our collective opinion, produce or sell quality gear. We would put advertising only in the right sidebar or footer but NOT into the main body of text (to sustain the flow of reading), NOT near the top banner, and NOT as aggravating popups of any kind.

Nothing annoying. Nothing into your face. It has to be subtle – and classy. And you, the reader, should be given the opportunity to avoid it altogether.

Any excess money, after hosting and taxes, would go at 100% back into the blog, be it for postage, import fees, or review gear acquisition. None of us will stuff their pockets.

In the end, despite advertising, www.audioreviews.org will remain entirely non profit. And cool as f***!

Let’s see whether I can convince everybody involved.

Until next time…keep on listening!

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We thank both for their valuable contributions to the blog and wish them all the best for their new challenges.

This moves audioreviews.org geographically and culturally further to the west. We will still be represented at full strength in the US, Canada, Italy, and Germany.

Merry Christmas!

Until next time…keep on listening!

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But if you expect fancy production with perfect lighting and wonderful soundtracks, you will be disppointed. I am a scientist and will analyse an given product for its quality, usability, and technical, sonic, and practical capabilities.

audioreviews YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWSxkiPzwt3BVGJyzArjF4A

I tend to say: YouTube videos are by people who cannot write for people who cannot read. Well, we do these things synchronously, I will write more concisely than ever…and I will compensate for my poor cinematography with our “audio porn”, our pages of pure technical photography, which you can use in visual support of any video.

So, all you need to to is subscribe to our YouTube channel, and you will get the latest videos delivered right into your device. Well, kind off.

Hope to see you soon.

Keep on listening!

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You’ll also find our RSS feed there: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AudioReviews

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Full review by Loomis Johnson Here!

Keep on listening!

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The KBEAR Diamond sports DLC (diamond-like carbon) coated membrane. DLC coating is a new technology that increases the high-frequency response by 0.2 to 5 dB. The KBEAR Diamond is presently a BETA in need of fine-tuning…bass needs to be decreased.

I spent quite some time with it and this could be a killer earphone: speedy for a DD, great staging, superb definition. Organic organic organic sound. Price still unknown but allegedly below $100. Out before year end, if everything is going as planned.

KopiOkaya, our man in Asia, told me that the Blon BL-03 MKII addresses some shortcomings of the original: Improved clarity. Tighter bass. Smoother treble. Longer nozzles. Better cable. It is not clear when it will be shipped, but it is apparently almost ready for production (they are presently recasting the moulds). No photo exists as of yet.

I A/B-ed the original Blon BL-03 and the Diamond Beta: both excel by their natural timbre but the Diamond have the edge in terms of resolution/definition….they are more refined. The fun effect between the two is equal to me.

The DLC technology could lead to much cheaper high-quality single DD earphones in the future. Eagerly awaiting the final product for analysis.

PS.: Why I write this? Because I am thrilled by the KBEAR Diamond (Beta) and the original Blon BL-03. Both of us, KopiOkaya and I, have remained dynamic-driver fans at heart.

Keep on listening!

Here our views of the original Blon BL-03:

The post Two Interesting Single DDs Coming Our Way Soon – KBEAR Diamond And Blon BL-03 MkII appeared first on Audio Reviews.