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HI-FI+ GUIDE to PERSONAL AUDIO Sponsored by Hifiman and Echobox Audio HI-FI+ GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO Sponsored by HiFiMAN and Echobox Audio HI-FI+ GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO HI-FI+ The Explorer The Explorer represents the evolution of portable audio, and our refusal to accept the limitations of digital audio. Smartphones, with their mediocre DACs, integrated, noise-prone circuitry and lossy files, just don’t do justice to the emotion behind our favorite music — that's why we've carefully crafted the Explorer using nothing but the the highest quality components to recreate a portable listening experience that's as close to real vinyl as it gets on-the-go. #AUDIOEVOLUTION Echobox is a company founded and run by music-lovers and audio geeks. We’ve been watching the personal audio industry for years, researching and analyzing everything from the types of music people listen to, how and where we listen, and, most importantly, the quality of audio. The truth is, there are a lot of fashion oriented headphones and earphones in the market today. Most sound mediocre, are built like dollar store toys, or are The Finder X1 just way too expensive for the quality they provide. We’ve founded Echobox to help The Finder X1 is a revolutionary new HiFi personal audio evolve in a way that does justice to good music. Our goal is simple: make earphone that, in many ways, is the first of its great sounding audio products that are well built and affordable. kind. Combining innovative structural engineering and the highest quality materials, we have created an earphone that sounds powerful, lively and transparent, while setting a new industry standard for durability. @echoboxaudio @echoboxaudio @echoboxaudio www.echoboxaudio.com HI-FI+ GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO (Sponsored by Echobox Audio and HiFiMAN) FROM THE EDITOR HI-FI+ TALKS WITH SEVEN PERSONAL AUDIO: IS IT ‘REAL’ CONTENTS VALUE-MINDED PERSONAL HIGH-END AUDIO? WHAT’S NEXT IN HEADPHONES? AUDIO DESIGNERS Hi-Fi+ Editor Alan Sircom asks whether Twelve important manufacturers talk about • Gary Hsieh, 1MORE personal audio can provide authentic their latest full-size headphone products! • James Strong, Atomic Floyd high-end listening experiences and finds that • George Gill, late of Echobox Audio top-tier sound quality ultimately may be in WHAT’S NEXT IN EARPHONES & CIEMS? • David Friesema, Etymotic Research the eye (and ear) of the beholder. Learn about the latest developments in • Davies Roberts, Flare earphones and CIEMs from twelve influential • Antonio Meze, Meze Headphones manufacturers! • Iain Smith, RHA Audio HI-FI+ PERSONAL AUDIO REVIEW INDEX (ISSUE 100 – PRESENT) WHAT’S NEXT IN PERSONAL AUDIO THE FIT IS IT: GETTING THE MOST FROM • Earphones & CIEMs ELECTRONICS & ACCESSORIES? YOUR EARPHONES • Full-Size Headphones Discover new personal audio electronics Hi-Fi+ Publisher Chris Martens explains how • Personal Audio Electronics & Accessories components and accessories from and why a proper fit is the key to making 19 industry leaders your earphones sound their best. ENCYCLOPAEDIA HEADPHONICA The personal audio world has spawned HI-FI+ INTERVIEWS SIX MASTERFUL A HEADPHONE MANIFESTO: distinctive terminology and expressions HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER DESIGNERS WHY HEADPHONES MATTER all its own and this ‘new language’ is not • Dr Alex Cavalli, Cavalli Audio Ardent headphone proponent and lifelong always easy to understand. Hi-Fi+ explores • Thorsten Loesch, iFi Audio high-end audio enthusiast Chris Martens and explains the specialised lingo in • Daniel Poupart, Moon by Simaudio carefully compares and contrasts the ways that should appeal to veterans and • Wang Fengshuo (Jason Wang), benefits of headphone-based systems vs. newcomers alike. Questyle Audio Engineering loudspeaker-based systems. • Jason Stoddard, Schiit Audio • Jack Wu, Woo Audio HI-FI+ GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO: CONTENTS GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO: CONTENTS HI-FI+ EDITOR, HI-FI+ GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO THE EDITORIAL OFFICE CAN BE PUBLISHER, HI-FI+ CONTACTED AT: Chris Martens Hi-Fi+ Editorial Tel: +1 (512) 419-1513 Office Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd Tel: +1 (512) 924-5728 Mobile Unit 3, Sandleheath Industrial Estate, Email: [email protected] Sandleheath, Hampshire SP6 1PA United Kingdom EDITOR, HI-FI+ MAGAZINE Tel: +44 (0)1425 655255 Alan Sircom Fax: +44 (0)1425 655477 Email: [email protected] Web: www.hifiplus.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd is a Hi-Fi+ Staff subsidiary of TMM Holdings LLC, 2601 McHale Court, Suite GRAPHIC DESIGNER Austin, Texas 78758, USA Jenny Watson Fonthill Creative, Salisbury CHAIRMAN AND CEO Thomas B. Martin, Jr. ADVERTISING All Rights Reserved. Tom Hackforth Tel: +44 (0)1425 655255 Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. Email: [email protected] Not one word of Hi-Fi+ may be reproduced ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER without the written consent of the Publisher. Pete Trewin We are perfectly happy to co-operate, Tel: +44 (0)1425 655699 but we don’t want quotations to appear Email: [email protected] out of context. Hi-Fi+ product-themed Guides are published in digital format only, four times per year by: Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd. HI-FI+ GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO HI-FI+ WELCOME to the Hi-Fi+ Guide to Personal and seriously performance-minded • Interviews with seven forward-looking FROM THE Audio 2016. This guide represents the fifth in manufacturers entering the personal designers whose products specialise in a continuing series of informative, product- audio marketplace than ever before. delivering both high performance and EDITOR themed, digital buyer’s guides published by high value, Hi-Fi+ over the course of each year. • High-end sound anywhere and • ‘Think pieces’ that ask how, where, why, everywhere: In the past the highest or even if personal audio has a place Personal audio is rapidly gaining traction quality personal audio components mostly within the traditional loudspeaker-centric both within and outside of the high-end lived on desktops or in audio racks, but high-end audio universe, audio world—growth that we think will a new generation of portable streaming • An in-depth look at how proper fit can expose a much wider audience to the joys high-res players means that high quality help your earphones sound their best, of high quality music reproduction, both sound can now follow us wherever we go. • An index of Hi-Fi+ personal audio reviews at home and on the go. Looking ahead, we from issue 100 to present, and foresee several important trends: • High-end sound to fit budgets large • An in-depth glossary to explain personal and small: As superb (but admittedly audio acronyms and terminology. • Sound quality matters: Headphones, expensive) top-tier personal audio earphones, and their related electronics components scale new performance As always, our goal is to help readers were once regarded as mere ‘accessories’, heights, lower and mid-tier components to derive deeper satisfaction from the but not anymore. As the personal audio also continue to improve at a torrid pace. music they love, while having great fun marketplace matures, the sound quality Is the era of high-end sound for Everyman with carefully selected audio equipment of personal audio components has now at hand? We think so. and music systems. We wish you all the skyrocketed, compelling music lovers to best personal audio has to offer, and take them seriously. This Guide presents: happy listening. • An explosion of options: Audio shows • “What’s Next?” sections revealing a over the past year have convinced wealth of new personal audio products, Chris Martens us there are now more well qualified • Talks with six gifted designers of masterful Publisher, Hi-Fi+ top-tier headphone amplifiers, HI-FI+ GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO HI-FI+ WHAT’S NEXT IN PERSONAL AUDIO? HEADPHONES EARPHONES AND CIEMS PERSONAL AUDIO ELECTRONICS AND ACCESSORIES COOL PERSONAL AUDIO PRODUCTS COMING SOON HI-FI+ GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO: WHAT’S NEXT? GUIDE TO PERSONAL AUDIO: WHAT’S NEXT? HI-FI+ WHAT’S NEXT IN Abyss Headphones Diana AudioQuest NightOwl Carbon HEADPHONES? Diana is the world’s thinnest planar magnetic closed-back headphone & headphone. She’s stylish, made in the USA NightHawk Carbon semi-open In this section we have invited from precision-machined aluminium, offers headphone manufacturers of full-size headphones durable ceramic finishes, and features Descended from AudioQuest’s award- with new products they wish to highlight touch points covered in fine handcrafted winning NightHawk semi-open headphone, to submit short and (mostly) fact-centred leathers and Alcantara®. Diana will have a the closed-back NightOwl improves upon descriptions of their new models, for our new robust version of our patent-pending, its predecessor’s outstanding fit and finish, readers’ information, entertainment, critically damped planar speaker drivers provides exceptional sound isolation, and and edification. for hard-hitting bass and excellent detail includes a highly durable cable with mic retrieval. Diana will ship with a custom cable and smartphone controls. Distinct from We have asked manufacturers to refrain set by JPS Labs. NightHawk, which features a semi-open from submitting product highlights laced design featuring AQ’s biomimetic sound- with florid marketing bombast, but as Diana is priced around USD $3,000, with diffusing grille, NightOwl conceals a vent you will see some are better at this than expected availability by end of year, 2016. beneath the central circular portion of others. Even so, we trust you will be able to its ear cups that exits through a hidden www.abyssheadphones.com separate out fanciful marketing claims from airflow-resistive port, creating an aperiodic the hard facts you’ll need and want in order damping system. to form your own “must audition” lists for new products you wish to check out. Enjoy. Meanwhile, compared to the original NightHawk, NightHawk Carbon boasts acoustic, ergonomic, and cosmetic refinements; adds a second pair of ear pads; and includes NightOwl’s more versatile cable, while retaining its predecessor’s low distortion, remarkable comfort, and non-fatiguing sound.
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