Category Archives: Audio Reviews

All earphone, headphone, amp & all other sound related reviews and unboxing videos will be found in here!

Review of the Klipsch Image S3M – A lower-end model from the famous S4’s

Pros: Mids, design and looks, lightweight
Cons: Lows, accentuated highs, straight jack, no volume control, microphonics, price

Packaging & Accessories: 8/10
Build Quality: 6/10
Design & Look: 6/10
Microphonics (higher ratings means lower cable noise): 6/10
Isolation: 6/10
Comfort: 8/10
Audio Quality: 7/10
Value: 8/10
My final Rating: 7/10

Purchase Date: September 2013
Purchase Price: £40

Klipsch S3M - Earphones and Tips

First of all, I would like to thank Sarah from Mustard PR for sending me these out to review.
I first glanced on the Klipsch S3M’s at the Digital Summers event in London. I was immediately intrigued by them, due to my good impressions of the S4’s that Klipsch has built a good reputation around, in the earphone world for low-priced, but very well performing earphones. Thus, I wanted to review the S3M’s in a more controlled environment and compare them to the impressions I had of the S4’s.

The S3M’s can be purchased from sellers such as AmazonUK and are priced at £40.
The S4’s, their bigger and older brothers can be found also on AmazonUK at £43 and their newer revision at £59. Although I have no idea what the difference between the S4’s revisions are. The S4’s mentioned in this review are based on the cheaper and older revision.

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Firestone Audio GreenKey USB Isolator and FR-H001 Headphone Stand Review

First of all I would like to thank Firestone Audio for sending me these products to review.

I shall start off with the GreenKey USB isolator.
First of all, purchase information
GreenKey USB Isolator – $102 / £50 / €59 – Available from:
Firestone-Audio
Amazon USA

Here are the pictures:

The USB isolator is a product I wasn’t expecting to change a great amount of audible sound, especially in a setup at my desk, which consists of my modded Denon AH-D2000, the DigiZoid ZO2 and an EHP-O2D. I was trying so hard, for such a long time to hear a difference, whilst using the EHP-O2D in DAC mode. No matter what I did, I couldn’t hear any difference whatsoever in sound. I tried different USB ports, both at the front and back of the PC and 2.0 and even 3.0 ports. I was just about to give up and say: “this product makes no difference”, until I turned on my DigiZoid ZO2 and decided to hook it up to the PC and charge it at the same time, whilst it was in operation. This is where I discovered a difference in sound with and without the GreenKey.

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Firestone Audio FireyeHD Amplifier Review – A good contender

First of all I would like to thank Firestone-Audio for sending me the amp for review.

The FireyeHD Headphone Amp costs: $130.00 / £170 / €200 and is available from:
Firestone-Audio
Amazon USA

Written review:
As I live in the UK – the review will be based on the product costing £170.

Packaging & accessories:
The FireyeHD headphone amp is a beautiful piece of kit, that comes in a nice little package which is quite simplistic. The amp includes a USB cable to charge the amp, a 3.5mm to 3.5mm interconnect to connect it to your given source and a charging wall brick.
I should say, that despite me living in the UK, Firestone Audio sent me a EU plug – thus I wasn’t able to use the wall charger at all. I don’t know if they provide a UK wall charger, but I would presume they would do so. Other than that, the amp came with what I would have expected from an amplifier package. It would have been nice to have had a little carrying pouch included for the FireyeHD as it is designed to be a portable amp.

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Review of the AKG K551 Headphones – Neutral and Smooth Sounding

Pros: Neutral/flat response, soundstage, design and looks, lightweight
Cons: Poor/weak bass extension, highs are slightly rolled off, benefits from an amp, cable thickness, lack of Android compatibility, cable is on left side only

Packaging & Accessories: 2/10
Build Quality: 8/10
Design & Look: 8/10
Isolation: 6/10
Comfort: 8/10
Audio Quality: 9/10
Value: 10/10
My final Rating: 9/10

Purchase Date: June 2013
Purchase Price: £150

AKG K551 - Looks

 

First of all I would like Sam, from AKG’s PR agency, for sending these out to review to me!
The AKG K551’s can be bought on Amazon UK, AmazonUSA and other resellers worldwide. The review will be conducted at the £150 price tag, even though they can be now bought at around £130 from certain places.

The AKG K551, is identical to its identical twin, the AKG K550, however rather than having a thicker, non-mic cable, it has a thinner cable with mic controls on it. That’s the only difference I was able to notice from reading other reviews online of the K550 and furthermore seeing the K550’s in-store.
Thus the K551’s are designed with Apple users in mind, and for those that don’t want to get their players out to play/pause, increase/decrease the volume. With that in mind, I’m an Android user, and despite testing this on Apple products, where the product worked as expected, I was again disappointed that the K551’s didn’t work on Android, like a lot of audio gear that has “mic controls” advertised on it. I can confirm that on my S3 running Android 4.2.2 leak, the mic controls didn’t work at all.

Now unto the full review of these headphones:

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Impressions & Thoughts on Open Back vs Closed Back Headphones – Sennheiser HD800/700 & Fostex TH-900

Introduction:

I’ve always been fascinated about audio and when I get the chance to hear new products, or even old products that have always been on my mind – I jump on the opportunity.
I recently was lucky enough to demo the Sennheiser HD800/700’s & the Fostex TH-900’s at P.J. Hi-Fi, a high-end audio shop located in Guildford. Before I get into my impressions, I would like to thank Andrew Holt for allowing me to spend as much time with these three headphones and more so being an extremely professional individual. I had a great chat with him both before and after my listening session; I found what he said really spot-on and honest. P.J. Hi-Fi is mainly a speaker/hi-fi shop, however they do store these three high-end headphones.

The headphones:
Sennheiser HD700 : £500-700
Sennheiser HD800 : £900-£1100
Fostex TH-900 : £1100-1500

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