Hi, everyone!

For me, just like for all of you, headphones have been and continue to be constant companions throughout my life. A long time ago, I had various over-ear headphones, the coolest of which were probably the Sennheiser HD 206 (my uncle gave them to me as a gift). I still remember putting them on, launching CS: Source, and being absolutely blown away by the sound quality. What am I getting at? I haven’t owned over-ear headphones for about 15 years, maybe even longer. I’ve mostly been using various wired earbuds and TWS earbuds, and for the past year, I’ve completely fallen down the IEM rabbit hole

The idea of trying over-ear headphones again had been floating around in my head for a long time. And here in front of me lies a new release from FiiO - the budget-friendly Snowsky Nature. I wanted to share the initial impressions of someone who’s used to high-quality in-ear monitors but suddenly put on over-ear headphones again.

(Full disclosure: FiiO sent me this unit for testing, but as always, all thoughts are entirely my own).

First Impressions
The headphones look nice, but, alas, they’re made of plastic, not wood. All my friends who’ve seen them ask, “Wow, are they actually made of wood?” and I constantly have to say, “No.”

But the first thing that really struck me was just how different the sound perception is! And no, I’m not talking about the frequency response or tuning right now. With IEMs, the sound feels much closer - it’s as if it’s playing right inside my head. With over-ear headphones, you can feel the distance between the driver and your ear, which creates a completely different soundstage and sound presentation. The soundstage is finally wider than my head! I’ll admit, I even had to get used to this all over again: because of that distance, the sound initially seemed more muffled to me, so my first reaction was actually rather negative. Although, perhaps it’s not about the distance, but rather the damping or the acoustics of the ear cups, I can’t say for sure.

I haven’t decided yet which one I personally prefer. As far as I’m concerned, these are simply two completely different, equally valid approaches to sound.

Comfort and Fatigue
When I put them on, I immediately realized just how unaccustomed I’d become to this format. The headphones are quite light and comfortable. No matter how cool my IEMs are, after about four hours of listening, I still start to feel discomfort. I think this is due to the physical pressure on the ear canal (and it’s not about the ear tips, I’ve tried different ones). I can comfortably listen to over-ear headphones for much longer… but man, do my ears get hot in the summer! It’s just indescribable.

The Sound of Snowsky Nature
I’ve never considered myself a “discerning” audiophile, so I’ll just share my subjective impressions. The Nature’s sound leans toward naturalness. The headphones sound great even without external DACs, which made me incredibly happy. There are times when the power goes out (which, unfortunately, happens quite often in the country where I live right now), so I really don’t want to drain my laptop’s battery even further by using an external DAC dongle.

You can feel a subtle but pleasant sub-bass in them. It was a new experience for me to feel the bass physically vibrating around my ear at high volumes! The mid-bass is well-controlled and doesn’t bleed into the midrange. The midrange is clear and up front, though I felt it lacked a bit of “body”and there’s a lack of certain micro-details in the vocals. I can say the same about the highs: they’re energetic yet not tiring, though I also felt there wasn’t enough detail in the instruments. The soundstage is probably their strongest point, but that came at the cost of ventilation holes. As a result, people around you can hear your music veeeery clearly.

To sum up, I’d say the sound neither impressed nor disappointed me, it’s just good. But I realized that someday I want to buy myself a pair of over-ear headphones in a different price range.

Final Thoughts
Of course, IEMs will remain my top choice for detail and portability (at least for now).

But now I’ve been given a massive reality check that reminded me just how much the form factor matters. No matter how cool my earbuds are, they’ll never provide the same sense of physical volume and relaxation that large over-ear cups do.

What type of headphones do you prefer? After this experience, I think I finally want both!

Have you ever found yourself with more expensive IEMs, but they’re increasingly just sitting at home while you’re out and about with a different pair?

Until recently, my main IEMs were the Snowsky Oak Nano, and personally, I think they sound amazing. I hear all sorts of tiny details in tracks that I hadn’t heard before, and with them, I just want to sit there and really listen to the music...

And you know, I caught myself thinking something interesting: sometimes, because of this, I just don’t want to play them in the background. It’s as if they’re asking me, “Forget everything else and dive into the details of the track.” It’s like trying to do something while a movie is playing on the home theater in the background.

And now I’ve been the happy owner of the Meze Alba for about a month, and they’ve changed my perspective on our hobby a bit. Before, if you’d asked me, “What should your new IEMs be like?” I would have answered 100%: That's an easy answer: they should be more technical. But how wrong I was, because at one point I just realized that, well, I can’t, for example, do certain tasks while listening to music on ultra-detailed earbuds, because I get distracted.

For the past month, the Alba have been living in my backpack, and there are various reasons for this, but they can all be summed up in one phrase: no resistance

They’re very lightweight, much smaller, and super comfortable, seriously, these are the most comfortable in-ear headphones I’ve ever used. They come with a small, convenient case that’s slightly larger than a TWS case (though I’m worried that because it’s white, it’ll lose its looks quickly). They have a pleasant, warmer sound that’s perfect for casual listening. And I realized that I’ve started preferring them when I’m walking outside, sitting at my computer in the office, want to play my new Nintendo Switch somewhere, or just want to put on some background music. They quickly became my go-to everyday earbuds. For me, the Oak Nano are the headphones I reach for when I want to close my eyes and immerse myself in the world of music, especially with heavier genres, because with them I don’t just want to listen to an album ... I want to “unlock” it, to immerse myself in it fully.

But, as I like to tell my friends, almost every positive in life has a downside, and the Alba has its fair share of these:

1. The Cable: Their cable doesn’t look very sturdy; I haven’t had any problems with it, but it’s very thin. This is a plus in terms of convenience, but I’m not sure it’ll last for years.
2. Detail Retrieval: These aren’t the most detailed headphones - which was a plus for me, but for many others might be a downside. They sound really cool, but they don’t try to bring out every single nuance.
3. Isolation: Another downside to their comfort is that they don’t offer the best passive noise isolation.

You know, for me, music has always been and still is my top priority. And any audio equipment, as far as I’m concerned, is a bridge between the emotions I get from music and myself. And now I’ve realized that the best headphones for a particular moment aren’t always the ones that sound the best. They’re the ones you just want to pop in your ears right now and hit “play.”

To sum it up, I want to say that I didn’t expect this from myself. Do you ever find that even though you have more expensive, analytical headphones, you end up using the others more often?

Ever since I switched to IEMs, I’ve started thinking seriously about psychoacoustics for the first time. Over time, you begin to notice that the same pair of headphones can sound different depending on your mood or expectations. For me personally, this effect was especially strong with expensive devices - it was as if my brain had already set the expectation: “Since they cost so much, they must sound better.” But recently, I caught myself thinking that it’s not just the price tag that can fool our ears, but also a cool design.

Arisyn sent me their Huo Shu to test. No review requirements were provided, so all the impressions below are entirely my own.

The Huo Shu are dynamic IEMs priced at $50. Given the budget, I wasn’t expecting any revelations from a brand I wasn’t familiar with; I was just curious to give them a listen.
But when I opened the box, I saw the natural wood faceplates and, to be honest, was very pleasantly surprised. They looked so great that I immediately took them with me for a walk. And riding that wave of visual delight, I plugged them into my player and… yeah, it seemed to me that they sounded really, really cool.

But after a while, the “wow” factor wore off. I started listening to them more critically, and the magic began to fade, revealing the very limitations you’d logically expect from a budget dynamic driver.

What I liked after a week:

• Appearance and comfort: It’s the Huo Shu’s design that catches your eye first. The wood gives them character, and they look noticeably more expensive than their $50 price tag. At the same time, they’re very lightweight - I could comfortably wear them for several hours without the slightest discomfort.
• The Lows: The bass is good controlled here. There’s a pleasant sub-bass, and the mid-bass is sufficiently dense and textured. The music sounds lively, but without any rumble or a sense of being overloaded.
• Midrange: For me, this is the best part of their sound signature. The vocals are slightly brought forward; they sound warm and very natural. It’s on vocal-oriented tracks that these IEMs really shine.
• Soundstage: For this price point, the soundstage is quite decent. There is a good sense of space and decent separation between instruments; the music doesn’t come across as a solid mass of sound.

Where the illusion began to crumble:

• The Highs : This is the most subjective aspect. I specifically read other reviews, and many describe the high frequencies as comfortable. My experience was different: on tracks with bright female vocals and plenty of cymbals, I periodically heard a peak that was frankly jarring to the ears. Changing the ear tips and making a slight adjustment with the PEQ noticeably improved the situation, so a lot here depends on the fit and your personal sensitivity.
• Technical Limits: The Huo Shu handle vocal music, acoustic music, pop, and not-too-heavy rock beautifully. But as soon as I switched to fast-paced metal or rich orchestral recordings, the driver’s limitations became apparent. Instrument separation remains decent for its price point, but it becomes harder to follow all the layers of the recording, micro-details get lost, and all of this prevents you from fully immersing yourself in the music.

Verdict

Did my own brain trick me because of the beautiful design? Probably a little bit, yes.

Does that make the Huo Shu bad IEMs? Not at all. Once the veil lifted, it turned out I was simply looking at a normal pair of $50 IEMs with a pleasant, warm sound signature, good vocals, and a truly interesting design. But despite all that, they have some notable technical limitations that, in my opinion, prevent me from calling them versatile

To be honest, the biggest revelation for me in this whole experience wasn’t even the IEMs themselves, but the realization of just how much visuals and our expectations influence our first impression of the sound. In the audio community, there’s often a debate about whether you need to “burn in” headphones. I don’t do that, but after this review, I realized: maybe all this time, I should have been burning in my own brain

 

Over the past year, my relationship with music has changed quite a lot, and DAPs have played a big role in that shift!

At some point, I realised that my phone was literally killing the magic of listening to music, and it was happening subconsciously. Here’s a typical morning: I wake up, go to the kitchen to make myself a coffee, put in my earphones… and before I know it, I’m checking my missed messages or reading the news. That moment of solitude vanishes. The music turns into mundane background noise, a soundtrack to scrolling through my phone.

That was one of the reasons I decided to go back to a standalone player just like I used in the 2000s. I bought the Tempotec Variations V1 and really liked it - convenient and functional. But after a while I understood: it’s still a very modern device. It solves the phone problem, but it doesn’t fully recapture the feeling of mid-2000s MP3 players.

So I was especially curious about the Snowsky Echo Nano. Full disclosure: FiiO sent me this unit for review, but everything below is my own honest experience.

Visually and to the touch, it perfectly captures that very aesthetic of the 2000s. I’m going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment; I’m spending a lot of time at home, and it turns out that holding something like this in my hands, loading it up with my favourite music from back then – Linkin Park, Nirvana, The Rasmus – and completely switching off from the outside world to lose myself in the music is incredibly therapeutic for me

What stands out (Pros)

• Aesthetics & build: Made with soul. Excellent design and quality materials
• Tactile feedback: Physical buttons have a fantastic click
• Performance and sound: A very snappy interface and impressive sound quality for such a tiny device
• Can be used as a DAC with a PC
• Resume playback: If you power off mid-track, the player starts in the main menu, but resumes the track from the exact same position when you start playback again

Trade-offs (Cons)

• Quite awkward to control one-handed.
• No gapless playback - there are noticeable pauses between tracks.
• No Bluetooth
• Battery life is around 5–6 hours (due to the tiny size)

The paradox of the small screen (subjective)

The interface is actually well thought out and pleasant to use, but the tiny display makes navigating a large library painful compared to the Tempotec.

Strangely enough, this “flaw” became one of its biggest strengths for me. The Echo Nano is breaking my habit of constantly skipping tracks. I just load a full album, put it in my pocket, and forget about the device while I lose myself in the music.

Mostly tested with the Snowsky Oak Nano headphones and an exFAT microSD card

Final thoughts

The Snowsky Echo Nano is not a do-everything modern player. If you want streaming, Bluetooth, a big screen and tons of features - look elsewhere.

But if you’re tired of constant information noise and want music to stop being background filler, the Echo Nano delivers a genuinely unique experience.

The most interesting thing is that the Echo Nano hasn’t replaced my Tempotec Variations V1. They simply offer different experiences. While you might want to use the Tempotec as a modern DAP, with all its features, the Echo Nano feels like a time machine - something you slip in your pocket, start your favourite album, and simply disappear into the music.

Hello, Reddit!

A week ago, I wrote about my first impressions of the pre-release Snowsky Oak Nano, which FiiO sent me to test. Since then, I’ve had a chance to listen to them carefully, get used to their sound a bit, and form a more comprehensive opinion.

Let me make one thing clear straight away: FiiO did indeed send them to me for testing, without specifying any requirements or technical specifications. So all the impressions below are entirely my own.

The first thing that surprised me was the feel of the earphones themselves. They looked interesting in the photos, but when I first opened the case and saw them in the flesh, my first thought was: "Wow, they feel like a piece of jewellery" because of how beautifully the titanium and copper accents shimmered. Overall, in my opinion, the design turned out to be quite minimalist, yet interesting.

That said, they don’t feel "weightless". They sit well in the ear, but my main pair of Letshuoer S08, made from aluminium, are noticeably lighter for very long listening sessions. And yes - like any metal IEMs, the Oak Nano constantly makes me a bit anxious about condensation, so I’m currently storing them in a case with silica gel.

They also get noticeably cold when it’s chilly outside, though not quite as much as the S08.

Now for the most important part - the sound

I’m certainly no professional reviewer with measuring equipment and "golden ears" - these are my subjective impressions after a week of everyday listening. I tested them paired with the Fiiо QX13. My library covers a lot of ground, but it mainly consists of a wide range of rock (from indie to metal), pop, rap, instrumental, soul, and electronic

I would describe the overall sound character as neutral-energetic with a slight U-shaped curve. They are very detailed, yet they don’t slip into sounding dry and clinical. The sound remains lively and emotional.

The bass is one of the model’s strong points. The sub-bass goes deep enough to convey a pleasant, slightly perceptible rumble. The mid-bass has superb texture and excellent resolution - every detail is audible. Personally, it took me a while to get used to the speed, as the attacks and decays here are fast and crisp, but they retain a natural weight without veering into that lightning-fast yet sometimes dry speed characteristic of planar drivers, which I’m used to in the S08.

The midrange is clean and well-defined, but the vocals, in my opinion, are slightly pushed back. It’s as if the singer is standing a couple of steps behind the instruments. On good recordings, this sounds very atmospheric, but I came across a couple of poorly mixed tracks where this characteristic becomes more noticeable, and I even felt the urge to slightly boost the midrange on the equaliser.

The treble is sparkling and very rich. It’s a relief that there is no sibilance - the high frequencies don’t ‘cut’ the ear with unpleasant peaks on the vocals or cymbals. However, the overall amount of high-frequency detail and energy can cause slight fatigue during prolonged listening. This is most likely down to my own personal preference, as I haven’t yet fully adapted to headphones with a higher level of resolution.

I’d like to highlight the soundstage separately. The semi-open design really comes through – the soundstage is wide and natural.

At the same time, the presentation itself is quite intimate: the music feels much closer to the listener compared to the more detached sound of the S08. The sound envelops you completely, creating an excellent sense of presence.

But there is a downside to the semi-open design: the sound isolation is far from ideal. Because of the sound leakage, if you listen to music loudly, those around you will be able to hear it too, as I’ve been told a couple of times already.

To sum up after a week’s use, the Snowsky Oak Nano offers a nice balance between analytical detail and musical drive, though with its own nuances. Switching to them from planar drivers required a bit of getting used to the decay speed and abundance of high frequencies, but this energy definitely has its charm

What are your thoughts on semi-open IEMs like these - do you enjoy the wider stage, or prefer better isolation?

Hey Reddit!

I’m a music lover from Ukraine. Less than a year ago, I discovered IEMs, and this community became my guide. Thanks to your engagement on my previous posts, something surreal happened: FiiO reached out to me.

They sent over their QX13 DAC, and a pair of unreleased IEMs - the SnowSky Oak Nano. No scripts, no requirements. Just a chance to test them.

The unboxing itself was also surprisingly nice. FiiO included a ton of accessories: multiple sets of eartips (ten* different types/sizes from what I counted), a leatherette carrying case with a soft velvet-like interior, interchangeable nozzles, detachable plugs (balanced by default, but you can swap to a standard 3.5mm jack), a USB-C adapter, and even a small cleaning brush.

I’ll be honest: I’m not a professional reviewer. But I really wanted to 'play the part' this time. I started listening to the Oak Nano and taking notes: "Spacious sound, nice textured bass,but not as technical as in my planar IEMs, plenty of treble... definitely leans more towards a fun V-shape than dry analytics."

Another one thing I noticed is that these have a semi-open design. This means your music will be slightly audible to people sitting right next to you if you’re cranking the volume. But I totally get why they did this - the trade-off is worth it. It vents the air pressure so you don't get that "vacuum" fatigue, and it makes the soundstage feel way more open and natural than your typical closed-back IEM titanium shell felt light and premium, though I did find myself worrying: will these get freezing cold in a Ukrainian winter? Will the temperature swings cause condensation inside?

Then, my girlfriend stepped in

If you've seen my older comments (link), you know her struggle: standard IEMs simply don't fit her ears. She’s been stuck with flathead earbuds for years. But as we unboxed the Oak Nano set, she saw the massive variety of eartips and asked, "Wait... maybe one of these will finally fit me? I want to hear what you’re always talking about."

A miracle happened. The smallest tips fit her not perfectly,but bearable. I plugged the Oak Nanos into her iPhone via the QX13, and she just... disappeared into the music for hours.

I know what you’re thinking: "Is this guy just going to give every pair of IEMs to his relatives now?" Trust me, that wasn't the plan. I wanted to do a proper technical comparison with my S08. But life (and my girlfriend) had other ideas.

At first, I wanted the gear back. I had a "job" to do! I wanted to check soundstage and check separation. But then I remembered a comment from my post yesterday: "Loving music is what matters... all this audiophile crap is missing the forest for the trees."

It clicked. I’ve been so obsessed with DAC chips and micro-details that I forgot the "magic." Watching her hear things she never knew existed in her favorite songs was better than any spec sheet. She didn't care about the ESS Sabre chip (until the QX13 drained her battery, lol) - even though she said it wasn't quite comfortable, but she was just catching a vibe.

So, to hell with the "charts" for today. The review can wait. For now, I’m just enjoying the fact that she finally "gets it."

Love the music, not just the gear

P.S. Has anyone here spent time with the older FiiO FD series (especially the FD7)? I’d love to hear your long-term thoughts on what to look out for!

Hey Reddit,

I didn’t expect Reddit to actually change anything in my life. But it did

After my previous posts, two pretty crazy things happened:

1)A kind stranger from Reddit sent my dad his own Sennheisers.

2)FiiO noticed me and sent me their flagship DAC and an unreleased pair of IEMs to test. No requirements, no script, no demands for a positive review. So I agreed.

So here’s what happened. The first thing I got my hands on was the FiiO QX13. When I first fell into the IEM rabbit hole, reviewers kept talking about how important the source is and how it affects the sound. But here on Reddit, most people told me not to overthink it with cheaper gear.

So I didn’t. I paired my Letshuoer S08 with a $30 JCally JM30 dongle. Later I added a Tempotec Variations V1 DAP.

And honestly?

I was completely satisfied. I thought my setup was done. Then the QX13 arrived. First off, I was surprised by the size of the QX13. "So much power in such a tiny body," I thought. The carbon fiber finish looks incredibly premium, but here I met my first bummer. FiiO included a warning that the body scratches easily and should be kept in its included leather case. So basically, all that visual beauty has to stay hidden. I connected it to my phone and decided to compare it with my previous sources — both the JM30 and the Tempotec V1. On paper, it already felt like overkill for my setup.

So I tried to be fair. Same IEMs. Same tracks. And I tried to volume match as closely as possible. And this is where it got weird.

What actually changed My old sources were never "bad". Music sounded good. Clean. Enjoyable. But with the QX13… It wasn’t one big change. It was dozens of tiny ones. And together… they changed everything: Wider, more three-dimensional soundstage Better separation and more “air” between instruments Tighter, faster, more controlled bass Overall cleaner, more effortless presentation And all these many "just a little bits" add up to a very positive picture, making me want to go back and re-listen to all my old tracks. Comparing it directly to my old sources made me truly understand the difference a high-end DAC can give.

So… was Reddit wrong? Is it really worth buying a $200+ DAC for $100 IEMs? Honestly? No. For me, if you’re running IEMs under ~$100–150, a $30–50 dongle is still more than enough.

But now I understand what people mean when they say "better source". If I were buying expensive headphones, I’d absolutely look into a proper DAC. It’s not about volume. It’s about control… and how much the music pulls you in.

Biggest downside for me Battery drain on the phone is brutal. And living in Ukraine, where power outages still happen, this becomes a real limitation. That’s actually why I bought a DAP in the first place.

What’s next The unreleased SnowSky OAK Nano still hasn’t arrived yet, but I’m really curious how a beryllium alloy dynamic driver will pair with this setup.

Do you think sources are overrated?Have you ever had that moment where you upgraded something and only realized the difference after going back?