Headphone Reviews and Discussion forum

Brad’s Audio Review (5/1/2026 through 5/23/2026) Fosi Audio C3 Gaming Sound Card As I mentioned in my prior review the other day of the fantastic Fosi Audio MD3. Fosi reached out to me near the end of February 2026 and asked if I would be interested in reviewing the new and upcoming dongle DAC called the MD3 and their new C3 gaming sound card. Even though these were kind of out of my element from HiFi, I still enthusiastically took them up on the offer to review the products on my... Read more

I'm taking a long haul flight soon and am looking into a portable IEM setup so I can leave the Sony XM3s at home. My primary audio source would be Tidal via an Android phone. Located in the US, budget is a flexible $500. My home setup is ZMF Verite Open / Matrix Element X / Icon Audio HP8 Mk II. For the DAC/amp, I was looking at the Qudelix 5K but am not set on a Bluetooth DAC necessarily, assuming I could output audio _and_ keep my device charged with a split USB C cable or similar. For... Read more

!!World's first Transportable SACD player - YBA Design One!! Created in cooperation with Shanling, this brand-new model from French Hi-Fi brand YBA pushes the levels of on-the-go disc listening to a whole new level! ​ High-end playback of SACD from a battery-powered player, offering the classic French YBA sound in a new compact and easily transportable form, aimed at High-end headphone listeners. MSRP at 1699 USD // 1848 Euro (Please check... Read more

Introducing JOAL, our highest value headphone. From the Abyss website... "Every track is a Master! JOAL’s ability to extract very subtle audible cues from music and movies and recreate the space of the original recoding is uncanny. It’s like having the master tape for every song; any vintage, any genre. Huge open soundstage with depth and layering, hearing the space around each instrument and singer is so fun. JOAL is a time machine for music, never ceases to amaze as it... Read more

BIG DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert reviewer or scientist of any sort. If you're looking for chartsengrafs , this is not the writeup for you. I own all this gear except the Hiby R8 II, which was kindly provided to me by the Audio Geek US Tour. I have zero incentive to say anything positive or negative. Here goes! Headphones/IEMs used: Thieaudio Monarch MKIII and DCA E3. Methodology: None. I would go from source to source listening to rock... Read more

Hey guys, many of use test opamps in various equipment but it seems a great deal of the informaiton and discussion is going on in other threads or behind the scenes where people cannot find it. I figured this thread would be a great idea for those testing.

It seems like the CCA C16 is a big hit right now, the impressions are not a lot but they are very positive and considered by many to be one of the best earphones under 100$, post your impressions here.

For almost as long as we have been making audiophile grade headphones, we have been bringing TV viewers closer to their favorite shows, sports, and movies. Indeed, the feature set and tuning philosophy is different, but the goal is quite similar: get into the entertainment when speakers either under- or overwhelm. We know that for many of you, the big rig at home is where the serious listening happens. But we also know that real life often involves a thin TV--with even thinner speakers--in a... Read more

​ Eletech's Limited Release Ultra Flagship;​ Elegy to Lucia​ Element Technology (Eletech) is an innovative driven cable artisan headquartered in Singapore. Co-Founded by Eric Chong, a prominent figure within the cable segment of Head-Fi industry alongside materials specialist Wang, an incredible... ​ Read more

I read a short comment in The Absolute Sound for the 2019 Axpona show about the new Linear Tube Audio Z10e headphones amplifier. This amp can run electrostatic headphones as well as planar and dynamic. I am wondering is any of the forum members were able to listen to it and can share your opinion on the sound of it. Based on the short writeup it seems very promising as a "Swiss Amy Knife" kind of amplifier. If it is really as good as the comment in TAS then it will be perfect for me will... Read more

USB Audio Filter Bench Testing: Empirical VBUS Ripple, Load Dynamics, and Marketing vs. Engineering After spending some quality time on the bench with an oscilloscope, a power bank, and a series of USB filtering solutions, I wanted to share some actual empirical data on what these various devices do to VBUS noise—and where the line sits between legitimate engineering and high-end marketing fluff. The Test Setup • Signal Chain: PC -> Galvanic Isolator -> Y-Splitter/Powerbank -> LC... Read more

There is little buzz about AURALiC here on Head-Fi, which is weird, as they are a high end audio company with great products for head-fi. And they've also received very good reviews from 6moons. I've had their fully balanced headphone amplifier, AURALiC TAURUS for quite some time now, and it's an amazing headphone amplifier with tons of power, especially when using balanced mode. I've done a regression plot of the values from their product manual in Excel to produce the following chart. ... Read more