Super Best Audio Friends

The MW10 is an Andromeda through and through. My understanding is that it’s the same 5 balanced armatures, however it was the first Campfire Audio IEM to use the ceramic acoustic 3D printed chamber. The Mix Wave website describes the main change in tuning as mainly the mid-high range but as measurement and impression should show, there is significant difference in bass as well.

Being a limited edition model, the MW10 received its own gorgeous blue color called Strato Blue. The faceplates screws are 24-karate gold-plated and the CA logo is an Avalon inlay, which shows different colors depending on the angle viewed. It really is, arguably, the most beautiful of the Andromeda variants.

Well, probably more measurements than review. @rhythmdevils already covered this here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/40-dynamic-iem’s-that-sound-good-and-are-waterproof-to-12-feet-indefinitely.9569/



And I've finally gotten to this months after the fact. Thank you for your patience. The move from CA to TX was big and it took me months to move into a new place and get my measurement gear set up again. Anyway, not only are these IEMs neutralish, but also quite good sounding. Technically much better than their $40 price. The downsides are their rather non-impressive (but waterproof) construction and less than stellar channel matching. However from a clarity point of view, these are very good, better than some IEMs costing thousands and thousands of dollars.

The lower to middle midrange sounds flat to my ears. The lows do sound slightly elevated. Bass texture is surprisingly evident. There isn't much pinna gain built-in, which is fine by me. On the other hand, the 2-3kHz region isn't depressed either. There is a dip around 5kHz (subjective and objective) that takes the edge off of snare drums and bite out of trumpets. The lower and mid treble are about right, but high treble, last octave air is missing. I really cannot complain for $40. Besides many single driver DD IEMs, even some high-end ones, lack air as well.

The HE400se is a really nice addition to the entry level headphone market. The other being the Drop x HFM HE5XX which received a ton of controversy because some people felt that it didn't live up to the original HE-500 (ignoring the fact that the HE5XX cost $500 less than the HE-500). Both the HE400se and HE5XX are on my list as the more pleasant sounding entry level headphones from HFM without any (much) upper-mid or lower treble peaks. The HE400se is on the more neutral sounding side, the HE5XX is darker.



Being an entry level headphone, the HE400se isn't what I would call super resolving. There's a bit of macro-detail, increased definition, maybe even "fake" detail or sharpening effect because of the mid-treble 10kHz peak (similar to the HE5XX). The transients are not as zippy or tight as high-end planars. The headstage in nothing spectacular. It's close, compact, but with decent width. The bass extends well, with a shallow slope down toward 20Hz instead of suddenly taking a sudden dump like many open back dynamic headphones.

The RSV is in the ballpark of reference neutral, however I do find it on the warm and smooth side of that description. To me this is a good thing, it makes it effortlessly listenable but could be disappointing to those looking for the ultimate neutral reference. At any rate, deep and sub bass are boosted over neutral. For the most part, the boost is natural and tastefully done. At times, it can be hair heavy handed for my personal preferences. The midrange is clear, transparent and balanced, all while being easy to listen to. Treble is every so slightly shelved down from neutral. There isn’t anything harsh or remotely bright sounding about the RSV with stock tips. While the RSV doesn’t inherently add any warmth, the slightly boosted sub bass and the slightly shelved treble make for an overall warm and smooth signature that doesn’t stray far from neutral. For someone like me, who prefers a neutral/reference signature, this is my relaxed and pleasant approach. It's just so pleasant and listenable without being overtly colored.



Bass on the RSV is slightly more elevated in deep and sub bass over the Blessing 2. The amount isn’t all that large but it lends to a more natural and palpable bass, despite the fact the RSV is armature bass. In fact, I’d say the RSV bass also presents better texturing down low, as the Blessing 2, while dynamic driver based, has bit of an overdamped, muted texture. Listening to electronic music or double bass metal, the RSV is able to deliver a more engaging and dynamic rumble.

These headphones were very difficult for me to get consistent results with. I was able to get a better seal a few days ago, but it seems that I could not replicate the result today no matter how hard I tried. I spent maybe 20 minutes readjusting, fluffling the pads, but I could not get better bass extension than this.



Here is a photo of of the earcup, swivel mechanism, and part of the headband. The construction is cheap but serviceable. I have no idea of the robustness of the design, only time will tell. For $40, that's what we are gonna get through. I was able to get my ears just into the cups. My ears touch a bit so it's slightly uncomfortable, but not overbearingly so. Those with larger ears should definitely skip this model. It looks look like Turtle Beach has won the race to the bottom. I thought they were supposed to be a high-end brand, but that was 25 years ago.

FiR Audio, a relatively new in-ear manufacturer, was founded in 2018 and released their first in-ears in 2019. However, the man behind it, Bogdan Belonozhko, was previously part of 64 Audio (and previously 1964 Ears). I haven’t had opportunity to hear any other models from FiR, so the VxV will the first. Fir Audio graciously provided the unit for review.



The VxV (or 5x5), coming in at a price tag of $999, is one of the cheaper models in the FiR lineup and was recently on Drop for $799. It looks like the VxV is the only one in the lineup that only comes as a universal. Apparently it is a limited run but I’m unsure of the number of units that will be made. The VxV consists of a 6.8mm dynamic driver and 4 balanced armatures: 2 for midrange, 1 for treble and 1 for super-high frequencies. The VxV is equipped with a pressure releasing vent system. Rather than being placed on the faceplate, its tucked away under the cable connector near the top of the housing. As far as I know, these aren’t user replaceable like the larger faceplate mounted options in 64 Audio in-ears. The 2 treble armatures are spoutless and I assume are positioned inside the housing bore, as described on FiR’s TECH page: https://www.firaudio.com/tech.

Interest has developed lately for the ECP Audio/Beezar Walnut X DAC. My intent, if you will all allow, is to start this as a detailed build thread, similar to what I did with the T4 Headphone Amplifier. Posts with photos and detailed descriptions will be posted almost daily, once the actual build begins.

I'll be building 5 DACs, counting the personal one for me.



Of course, the first thing I did was contact Doug Savitsky, the DAC's designer. Maybe some of you have heard of the DSHA-3F or T4? (Tongue in cheek, of course) Those of you who've invested in those amplifiers are well aware of Doug's achievement as probably one of the most pre-eminent headphone amplifier designers in our headphone culture. I personally think he's the best, but I'm obviously biased.

It's clear from reading SBAF that people are missing out on a lot of the potential from Volumio or frustrated because it doesn't do what they want out-of-the-box. This is my second or third attempt to create a writeup of Volumio tips. The writeup has proven to be too grand an endeavor and my earlier draft has disappeared, so I'm starting a thread and will aim to consolidate tips at a later stage.



When I initially raised the possibility of this thread, some suggested putting it under Pi2AES or Raspberry Pi based streamers, which reflects a common misunderstanding about Volumio - it isn't necessarily tied to any hardware. So I'll try to get the basics about this software out-in-the-open first.

I'm not affiliated with Volumio, and I don't claim to know everything about it. But I have used it a lot and customised it quite heavily. And no-one else has stepped up with a similar thread, so you're stuck with me and whoever else joins this thread.

The M7 is a dark warmish sounding IEM. Pinna gain is tuned to a minimum, just a bit. The upper mids and lower treble are scooped. Basically those into a stereotypical Chinese IEM kind of voicing that enhances the genre of beautiful female vocal should stay away, far away from the IER-M7. Think of the tonal balance of the M7 like the Andromeda, but without the mid-treble peak, or like the Andromeda 2020, but with crappier technicalities: the resolution isn't anywhere close, the upper mids on to the highs are OK, the top octave is muted, the lows to mids are veiled like the HD650 on mediocre amps. I sense a lot of distortion. My bet is high second order just as much third order. I do find the frequency response agreeable and rather smooth throughout the audio band. This is the M7's greatest strength. The rest is rather questionable.

I heard about this little USB-C dongle DAC/amp called the Helm Bolt from Michael Lavorgna's website Twittering Machines. He used to write for stereophile and audiostream, I always liked his writing style and alternative taste in music even though I was not always a big fan of the types of products he was pushing.

I hooked up the Bolt to my 2008 Mac Pro using the included USB-A adapter, to my iPhone XR using a USB-C to Lightning adapter, and to my modern Windows desktop PC. sound quality was rather crummy from the motherboard of my desktop PC, excellent on my Mac, and in between the two with the iPhone although leaning much closer towards the quality of the Mac. I mention this as YMMV depending on what you USB source you plug the Bolt into.

Rockna Wavelight - Holo Audio Spring2 KTE listening evaluation Blind ABX testing used to confirm ability to discriminate differences between DACs. The results are shown below



During the first run (training) challenge step 5 was not correctly discriminated. The two successive runs were perfectly discriminated.

At this extraordinary level of performance Wavelight and Spring2 KTE sound more similar than different. Please keep in mind the differences described below are subtle but differentiable as demonstrated in ABX testing above.

Let's take a look at IEMagni measurements. First off, let's do 1kHz steady-state sine waves. This is the one that rules them all and of the SINAD is derived from. Note that the voltages I use are lower than that of another site. I run the output -3dBU which is ~0.550mVrms.



Schiit IEMagni Medium Gain
1kHz Steady-State Sine Wave
-3dbU output into 30-ohms, normalized to 0dbC