The November Hi-Fi Show has been going on for years mostly dominated by speakers and tube speaker amps and vinyls and more speakers. Did I mention speakers? Slowly but surely, portable audio's making a scene in Manila. Let's look at the current portable audio weather in Manila with our chief weather correspondent, me.
Thanks, me.
Lovely tube amp by Simon Tang of
DIYHiFiSupply.ph driving an HD600. It's quite fan*tang*stic.
FlipEars has been a UIEM/CIEM staple in zeh FlipEens. Tried the UIEM version of their Aiden model and I was blown away by its bass (albeit being a BA IEM) and its clarity while maintaining a sense of smoothness.
Met with my m8 Jayson and tried his Sony MDR-CD900ST. Had to take a pic with my Koss Porta Pro just cos they both have Yaxi pads and MMCX mods (Shoutout to Vic Hernandez!). The Sony MDR-CD900ST has sum wide soundstage and great tonality but the bass can be a bit slow. Some silver on the cables help tell the bass to take a chill pill. Gr8 headphones for about 14k Japanese munnies. 💴
Chord Dave, Blu CD player and power amps driving some KEF speakers. Those KEF LS50s (not the ones on the pic, forgot to take some soz) are sure to give ya sum audionerdboners for about a thousand muhrikan munnies but I heard they're quite hard to drive. Oh right, back to portables.
Audio-Technica room. The m60's. THE M60'S! Nice sound balance. Not as harsh as the other AT headphones. Surprisingly comfortable for a pair of on-ears.
Sony room. WH-1K freaking Xmk3 WHY COULDN'T THEY THINK OF SHORTER MODEL NAMES?! Sorry. The palm-on-the-cup gesture for when the flight stewardess asks you if you like fish or chicken is sorta cool. Warm nuts, sir? *palm on cup* why, yes. Thanks. I want one just for when I'm on planes. But then, I think of the number of times I'm on planes (not much).
【Ｐｏｒｔａｂｌｅ Ｐｌａｙａ】
Note to self: bring a banana next year for scale.
MDR-Z1R that resembles nothing like women's boobiegarments.
About 10k USD worth of audio luxury.
Soundwave room. DITA PROJECT 71 A.K.A. BUMBLEBEE Y'ALL! It's warm! It's got nice cymball-y cymbal timbre! It's what you'd imagine an IEM with shells made out of wood and brass would sound like and it's done right.
Meze Empyrean! Fantastic balance with a touch of dem details.
Focal Utopia. It happened. Expectedly so at a hi-fi show.
Fancy Cayin tube amps powering the Empyrean and Utopia.
Noble IEMs.
Earbuds! EARBUDS AT A HI-FI SHOW! This made me so glad. Maybe too glad than I should be lol. They're relatively affordable and sound nice. This pic features some Astrotec Lyras and Loebuds by
Marloe Uy.
Cayin N8 + a $5 pair of earbuds. The N8s sound tubey with their Korg NuTube thingamajig but in a nice way. Tubey but not tubby.
Portable sauces.
Acoustune jewellery box. Overall, the Acoustunes have nice balance and resolution with sum warm tonality. Love 'em.
New Meze IEMs. Metal shells are duh beezwax nowadays methinks. Metally treble but the bass is a bit slow and the mids are warm.
Hyla IEMs. Yet another metal IEM 🤣. 3 thousand dollarrssss. I like em, though.
Focal Clear. Would've been hilarious if they sounded veiled but they weren't.
Hi-fi show staple HD800.
A Cayin stack driving the Clear and HD800.
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And then I go home. Sorry if all I could comment about are just their tonalities/sound balance. Their technicalities like their soundstage, resolution, etc. are a bit hard to comment on with limited listening time. And I'm sorry I wasn't able to test all of them (I saw some UE RR on zeh pictures!). Was on a bit of a hurry. 'Til next year!
