New hiby r5 gen 2 for 400$.
Battery life and general improvements looks great, but it is interesting how they decreased the marketed power output so heavily from R5s (at 1.1W at 16Ohm, when now they only state value at 32Ohm being 480mW). Or they lied about the previous power output (or it was with like 1,1W but with 10% THD)…
Ed: but this Snapdragon 425 in 2022 also seems underwhelming
Ohboi
Decent technicalities, when I was already sold on tuning, Spring Tips, and metal body.
C+ Technicalities
A+ Tone
B Ranking Overall
and 3 stars value
Moondrop Chu is going to takeover the default recommendation (for neutral tuning at least).
3rd beater set lets goooo lol
its a shame that they had to stumble with the last part, the cable…its the same as the KZ ATE…
Especially when the Quarks cable was totally fine.
it really is weird…
And before anyone say its because they dont have the money for a better cable, well.
And this isnt counting the batch discount nor the cheaper prices generally on taobao.
I was hoping for at least Android 9 or 10, Better CPU and more RAM, but they kept the same specs as the Hiby R5s. Also the Hiby R5s has about 520mw at 32Ohm and 1.1W at 16Ohm (more than the newer version). The battery was improved but only if you use the “Economy Mode” feature that limits the output to 320mw. If you use high gain with the Class A amp the battery decreases to 7 hours (Wich is less than the 11 hours for the Hiby R5s at high gain).
At least has a new design, better display, better battery (if you are ok with 320mw) and MQA 16x (for who cares about that, I don’t).
I will be keeping my R5s.
Different species. The device itself it’s actually insane for a class A amplification. There’s not much in the market that can do it like that.
Needless to say… I need one 
You are clearly chasing the source rabbit after catching IEM ine, aren’t you? 
Just FYI, this class A amp is a little bit of a gimmick - in most DAPs typically you have AB class amps, which operate in class A type of amplification in low power consumption situations anyway (the limit depends on the design).
So, as you are not a headphone guy (yet) with IEMs you would probably won’t ever get into a range of potential signal distortion because of crossover in AB unless you would EQ something really power hungry like hell (and I really cannot think about any IEM that would give you something like that).
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Always been, specially with how the iem market is atm. Im a firm believer in sources, but they only matter the last mile, give it or take.
I mean gryphon + n3pro should do theoretically for all scenarios, but I get the idea of NX7 and Q5k (missing from the pic). Rest is a whim IMO
Actually that xd-05 plus with burson opamps is the real juicer 
anyway, they all sound different, but I will eventually convert them into something else 
Have you done a XDSD Gryphon review?
Other than the uncountable features, how do you define his sound signature?
I totally agree that Amp and Dac make just a slight difference in the last mile, but sometimes is the difference to make everything more enjoyable.
In my case, I prefer the Asgard 3 doing than what I had before with the Topping Dx3 Pro. Again, the difference might not be big an immediate, but after a lot of times doing A/B tests, the sound difference exist, and I like more the Asgard 3…
No I havent yet. Gryphon is a swiss knife that does everything and you pay top dollar for that. Its signature is more musical than the usual lifeless/bright neutral amps on the market. It’s still technical but on the neutral tilting to warm. It has thick note weight.
The fact is sound is a personal preference. The amplification contributes to it. I do prefer a bit of warmth for listening. The topping gear I had was fine but did left me thinking something was missing. Your ears are your guide let them take you on your own journey. There are no absolute right or wrongs.
Yes! Sources are exactly like iems: about preferences.
I do love trying new sources but I keep the consistency for reviews.
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It’s hard for me to get into headphones, I’ve tried. I want to get into speakers master race once I get a house that enables me to.
