Hello and happy Sunday, everyone! Just wanted to share my Atrium review here ☺️
This one took me a while to review, having listened to it for a few months. Its sound is quite unique -- it's thick, with the most bodacious mids you'll ever hear, but it stays present and vivid.
Have you heard them? Would love to hear your thoughts 😃
Hello and happy Friday everyone! 😄
Over the past few weeks, while I was sick, I spent a lot of time listening to the HD 480 Pro and what can I say? I love them.
I've tried a number of Sennheiser closed-backs over the years, from the HD 820 S to the more recent HD 620 S, but the HD 480 Pro is the first one that really gives me the qualities I love in a Sennheiser headphone. The fit, the comfort, the timbre... it's all there. 🎧
The bass can sound a little soft or round at times, but the mids and treble are genuinely exceptional. Overall, I think this is one of the best-tuned closed-backs out there (and certainly the best I've heard from Sennheiser), and at $399 it's also a pretty fantastic value.
Curious though, have any of you spent time with the HD 480 Pro yet? What did you think? 👀
Hello everyone, and happy Wednesday 😃
Just published my review of Sony’s 1000X The Collexion headphones on YouTube.
Going into these, I pretty much expected them to sound like a WH-1000 series headphone with nicer materials, and well… that didn’t turn out to be completely wrong.
Still, after spending some time with them, I do think there is a bit of improvement here.
They’re still very warm, very bassy, and I don’t expect them to convert anyone who wasn’t already a fan of the WH-1000 series sound.
But compared to at least the XM6, the Collexion sounds a little fuller and more natural to me in the mids, especially around that 400 to 1000 Hz region.
It lacks a bit in upper midrange presence and mid-treble clarity, so it sounds fairly dark up top, but overall I found the timbre more enjoyable than on the standard XM6.
I will say though, comfort was a bit of a letdown for me.
Contrary to what people might assume about audiophiles, I absolutely love the idea of a good, comfy wireless ANC headphone... haven't found the one yet!
Still had a good time checking these out though.
That $650 price tag is sus.
Hello everyone, and happy Tuesday 😃
Just wanted to share my review of the Sony MDR-MV1.
My interest in these was actually born after listening to the Monarch MKIV, which probably sounds a little weird at first, but bear with me.
After spending time with the Monarch, I realized I enjoyed it most with the “Rumble” switch enabled. Which, in turn, made me realize that while I usually gravitate toward more neutral-ish headphones, I do actually enjoy a well-done V-shaped tuning from time to time.
So I started looking for an over-ear headphone that could give me that more energetic, elevated-bass-and-treble presentation without becoming bloated or harsh.
That led me to the MDR-MV1.
And since picking them up, I genuinely haven’t been able to put them down.
The bass and treble are both boosted, of course, but they pull it off really well. The bass has great depth for an open-back dynamic driver and brings a lot of warmth and impact without having that loose quality I usually associate with Sony’s other headphones (staring at the XM series). The treble is bright and energetic, but for me it mostly stays on the right side of exciting rather than harsh.
The mids are unsurprisingly a little softer because of the V-shaped balance, so I don’t think these are going to be for everyone, and I didn’t love them as much for stuff with a heavy electric guitar focus. But for most other genres, they slapped 👌
They’ve basically become my “fun” contrast to the stuff I usually daily drive, mainly my HD 800 S.
Hey everyone! Happy Friday 😃
A few weeks ago, I shared some thoughts on the CrinEar Reference, and did end up making a video on it… so I figured I’d share here, too!
Honestly, it’s just an awesome IEM, and one that — along with the Monarch Mk. IV — has re-sparked my interest in IEMs, so I’ll definitely be sharing more impressions and reviews in the future!
In fact, my next IEM will very likely be the YU9 Que, which was recommended to me by a channel member. Also saw that my former colleague Precogvision really liked it, so I was curious enough to pull the trigger on it 😂
Anyway, have you tried the reference? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
Hey everyone! Good morning and happy Friday ☺️
Just published my follow up to the HiFi vs Non-Audiophiles video from a few weeks back, this time exposing my friends to some IEMs!
As always, these videos are about as far from scientific as you can get, but we really hope you enjoy them nonetheless! For us they're a great time filming, and I really enjoy sharing this stuff with people who are not familiar with this hobby at all.
I shared a few details in a pinned comment, but I'll share here too for those who are curious 😃
Would love to hear what you guys think of the video, and all feedback is greatly appreciated! These take a lot of work to put together, so I want to make them as best as I can for future videos of this style 😊🙌
Hello and happy Saturday, everyone! 😊
I was suddenly dragged out to work at a Tatte, so my peaceful Overwatch afternoon plans have been canceled 🥲
But since I’m here, I figured it would be a good time to listen to and write about the IEMs I gathered for next week’s round of HiFi vs. Non-Audiophiles filming.
Among them is the focus of this post: the CrinEar Reference.
- Some disclosures before proceeding -
I've done all my listening in my 'real' contexts: I've listened through my JDS Labs Element IV amp, at times (like at the time of writing this) plugged straight into my MacBook Air M5, and from my iPhone via the USB-C to 3.5mm dongle. Also, I've personally been using SpinFit W1s in medium size for these. Thanks again to Bloom Audio for letting me borrow these!! 🤘
- Ok, let's talk CrinEar Ref. -
I’ll keep this short and sweet, since this is meant to be an impressions post rather than a full review. So, to answer the question of whether Crin’s latest IEM is overhyped or not:
NOPE ahaha these are dope 😌
Not perfect, of course, and they won’t be for everyone. But the first thing that popped into my head when I tried them was this: if Sony has basically “solved” hybrid digital cameras, then the CrinEar Reference feels like it has done something similar for IEMs.
And by “solved,” I don’t mean that there aren’t other excellent options. There are still plenty of amazing IEMs out there, with different tonalities and different kinds of performance for different preferences -- and that’s completely valid. But this feels like the rare one that manages to be the safest recommendation without sounding safe.
It’s the easiest default. The one that, to me, feels hardest to argue against. Not because it plays things conservatively, but because it manages to be natural, exciting, technically impressive, and genuinely fun all at once.
There are still other sets I love, and if price were no object, I’d probably still struggle between this and something like the Thieaudio Monarch Mk. IV. But at $349.99, the Reference changes the conversation pretty dramatically.
While I usually try to avoid reading stuff online before I try something, given the explosive popularity of anything involving Crin and IEMs, it was impossible not to at least see headlines and thumbnails about these. More specifically, I kept seeing the word “flat” attached to them, and well, they are called “Reference.”
Normally, those words might suggest an extremely neutral, lean, or “analytical” sound signature. But I don’t think those descriptors quite fit here. And that’s the genius of them.
The CrinEar Reference has a very natural sound, but it still includes enough thoughtful cuts and boosts throughout the frequency response to make it an undoubtedly musical listen.
The bass shelf has a modest level of presence, with clear and defined sub-bass. That’s followed by a distinct but controlled mid-bass bump around 130–150Hz, which adds a bit of kick and warmth without overdoing it. Fun.
The midrange is one of the most naturally voiced I’ve heard in an IEM, if not the most. It has powerful fundamentals in the lower mids, and plenty of energy in the upper mids, aside from a subtle dip around 3.5–4kHz.
The treble is similarly excellent. It sits at a very comfortable level, nicely accentuating overtones with just the right amount of bite in the 7.5–10kHz region to keep things interesting without becoming hot. There’s also some nice airiness up top.
My only personal gripe -- and I know this is a region I tend to be sensitive to -- is that there seems to be a very slight but broad elevation around 5–6kHz. For me, that introduces a little bit of haziness in the lower treble, which is made more apparent by the 4kHz dip I mentioned earlier. That said, it’s very subtle, and I’d mostly call it a nitpick.
- So, what do we have here? -
Honestly, I think this is likely going to be the easiest IEM to recommend for a while. It sounds natural, but it’s also exciting to listen to. As things stand, I’d struggle to see myself choosing anything else over it in the IEM world.
Even at $349.99, it handily outclasses all of the IEMs I’ve heard in the multi-thousand-dollar category 🔥
Hello everyone! Hope you're having a fine Thursday 😁
Just uploaded my review of the Edition XV from HiFiMAN to YouTube, so I wanted to share it here!
I've always liked HiFiMAN's headphones. I've found them to, more often than not, represent an excellent blend of value and performance... but I think the Edition XV takes it a step further, with a tonal balance that I think even more people will find enjoyable the usual HiFiMAN sound signature.
They sound very natural to me, but they're subtly warm in ways that just make for a very smooth yet detailed listening experience.
This was one of the headphones that I picked up for the HiFi vs. Non-Audiophiles video, and since I first listened to it I was genuinely impressed by the experience you could get from these at $400. So, even though I'm pretty late to checking it out, I still wanted to talk about it because, well, I think it's pretty dope!
Had I been in the blind test panel, I think I might have guessed the price wrong on these 😂
Would love to hear your thoughts if you've tried it out, too!
Hello everyone, and happy Tuesday evening! 😊
First, I just wanted to say thank you for the overwhelmingly positive response to the recent video featuring my friends trying out some headphones. It’s been really encouraging reading everyone’s comments on both YouTube and Reddit, and I’m genuinely happy to hear that so many of you enjoyed the format.
Here’s the video, in case you missed it:
https://youtu.be/WY9wofvcMAs
I’ve also been carefully reading through the feedback and criticism, and I’ll be trying to address as much of that as I can in the next video like this, which is going to be the IEM one.
Bloom Audio helped provide the IEMs for this video and we worked together to pick a wide lineup across very different price points:
Since IEMs can vary even more from listener to listener than over-ear headphones, I wanted to share a few details ahead of the video:
And of course, this is not intended to be a scientific test by any stretch. Once again, it’s mostly a chance to see how people outside the hobby react to different audio products at very different price points.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback before we film next week! 🙌