EchoBox Audio
It seems to me the EchoBox DAP was announced ages ago already but now it’s finally here! If you have no idea what I’m talking about you might better remember that mysterious flask shaped DAP you saw all over social media channels.
The picture doesn’t really do it justice though as they look even prettier in real. You’ll also be able to select the type of wood you want your DAP to be finished in and I do recommend getting the optional docking station for it.
We atm are talking to the Echobox people about featuring it on the site, so again, keep an eye on this DAP here on Headfonia.
Effect Audio
If you’ve been following Headfonia you know Effect audio is one of the house suppliers for head-and earphone cables.
My all-time favourite EA cable is the 2.5mm/2-pin finshed Leonidas cable which I use all the time with all of my inears and ciems. EA was showing all of their line-up at the show but the one I liked most was the 8 wire Leonidas cable which sounded even better than the 4-wire version I have. The 8-wire cable is shown in the picture above with my Warbler Prelude and AK SP1000. I’ll be upgrading to the 8-wire version very soon!
Empire Ears
The last time we featured Empire Ears here on HFN was when they released the Legend R. At that time Jack’s company was still called Earwerkz and we all know that was ages ago. EE have released several TOTL customs since then and I’m pleased to say we’ll be featuring them on HFN soon again.
Jack let me listen to a whole series of prototypes he was working on and I gave him my honest feedback about all of them. Btw, how awesome does their ZEUS model sound? Waw!
Feliks Audio
The Polish Feliks Audio is one of those brands that keeps getting positive reviews yet it keeps escaping me for some reason.
My goal is to definitely review the Feliks gear before the end of 2018 😀
FIIO
We all love Fiio, the budget king. Fiio used Canjam London 2017 (and two other events worldwide) to launch four! new products at the same time. Of course James showed us these already at the High End show in Munich, but now they were no longer prototypes. All the new FIIO products feature the 2.5mm balanced connectors we know from AK and so many other brands. An excellent choice if you ask me.
Fiio didn’t release one but two “new” DAPs at once. Of course we’re talking about upgrades here of the already existing DAP-line but they’re very interesting none the less. First of all there is the long awaited update of their reference player, the X7. The new X7MKII now shares the form factor of the popular X5III but it used the AM modules of the original X7. The X7MKII should have been dropped of by DHL at the HFN HQ last Monday.
The new X3MKIII also received quite the update and it now looks a whole lot more modern. If you compare it to the original X3 you’ll see it has been completely reworked from top to bottom. The new red casing makes this a very sexy player but I’m still not a fan of the scrolling wheel the X3 still has on the front.
The 3rd new product Fiio showed was the new F9 universal IEM which they describe as a metal ripple hybrid three-unit IEM. Unfortunately someone was always listening to it and I didn’t get the chance to grab it for a listen. I’m sure Fiio will be sending us one soon though.
Last but not least Fiio introduced the world to their new Q1MKII, a DAC/AMP with native DSD decoding that will retail for only $99,99. I visited the Fiio stand on several occasions but the new Q1 unfortunately was nowhere to be found.
It continues on Page five with Final Audio and more, right after the click here or the jump below
tronco
Thank you Lieven, nice report!
Lidson
Lieven you could get the 1 More H1707 a review.
AUdiodiplomat
Overall, an excellent and detailed report with good pix, reflecting my own good impressions. However, there seem to be some omissions: nothing on “Advanced”, and the “Echobox” report was ultra-skimpy. It would have been nice to see at least a SQ and operational assessment of the Explorer, and mention of their prototype planar cans. I thought the Kennertin on the ears $60 jobbie was excellent, so an assessment amplification would have been appreciated here. Btw “Snuggs” has but one g!!
Audiodiplomat
A couple of predictive errors and mistypes above : omit “amplification” and it’s “Kennerton” of course!
henry harmon jr.
what, no Sennheiser?
Lieven
It’s in part 2. You did see Part 2 right? It’s only mentioned like a couple of times
Sp12er
I did see more Sony DAPs taking the scene quite a bit in recent Head-Fi’s posts , I don’t know maybe they really do something right with the Signature Series to get an increase in popularity after all?