This Week In Headphoolia #21: New Blind Testing Experiment [week ending 7/16/17)

Game of Thrones Season 7 begins today and while you may be anxiously waiting for it, here’s a new edition of our weekly e-zine (okay, round-up?) that is “This Week in Headphoolia”. This covers up to Sunday 7/16/17. If you finish this and need more, check our previous 20 installments in the Headphoolia archives.

We are going to use a similar format as the previous installment that came out mid-week. Both video content and text-and-pictures articles are mixed together in each category. They are however easily designated in each entry, so if you have a strong preference either way, you can tell easily. Yes, this is a two for one special this week, we posted two installments πŸ™‚

AUDIO SHOWS

It’s Los Angeles Audio Show time, aka LAAS, and Innerfidelity was there with a nice text and pictures report on their website, and also seven video clips added to their YouTube Channel featuring, so far, Chord, Cayin, Campfire, Astell and Kern, Ultrasone, and more.

NEW MEASUREMENTS

Every month, Innerfidelity has a new gift for fans of headphone measurements. A new round of measurements along with brief commentary on said measurements at the Innerfidelity website. A variety of over/on-ears and earphones came in for this round of measurements as well. There is a MEGA PDF file with all of them, or you can use the alphabetically sorted list of measurements at this Innerfidelity Tracking page. Have fun (but don’t forget to listen to music too!) πŸ™‚

BLIND TESTING EXPERIMENT

Do you like blind testing of audio gear and music formats? Archimago is back with a new MQA vs Standard HiRes audio procedure for testing, and it comes with a feedback survey so you can report back your own findings. Everything is explained in detail in the article, and the music files to be used in the experiment are all there.

If I get around to doing this, I will blog about it separately πŸ™‚ There is plenty of time for this, it continues until Friday September 8, 2017, so you don’t have to drop everything now πŸ™‚

OVER and ON EARS

+ MrSpeakers Aeon Flow (Γ†ON) video review by Deez Canz (18 minutes)

+ Audio Technica Wood ESW990H video review at Lachlan Likes A Thing (12 minutes)

EARPHONES

+ MEE Audio (formerly MEE Electronics) followed the pattern following the success of the M6 PRO, a newer model with triple the price. The M7 PRO in-ears get reviewed at Carrot Reviews

+ Audeze’s iSine 10 planar earphones reviewed at Headfonics

+ Westone W80 earphones review at Headfonics

+ Westone W60 earphones review at Headfonia

+ iBasso makes more than DAPs, their CB13 earphones are reviewed by PORTAFI in this new 8 minute video

+ QuiteON ANC earplugs review at Headphone List

DACs, DAPs, AMPs, and Magical Cables

+ Fiio X7 DAP audio review at Headphone List

+ Aune S6 DAC/amp review at Headfonia

+ Shanling M2 DAP review at Headphone List

+ iBasso AMP2 amplifier model for the DX200 video review by Porta FI (6 minutes)

+ Z-Reviews talks about the Audio-GD NFB-1AMP in a new 27 minute video

+ Forza Audioworks Noir Hybrid HPC cable impressions at Earphiles

+ Android Authority has a sister site, the “Sound Guys”. Between them, they have produced a new list of what in their opinion are the best smartphone for music lovers. Keep in mind, from their perspective, this is not just headphone-centric, as some people listen to music using the phone’s built-in speakers, so that is factored in as well. Here is the list of five smartphones they selected.

LEARNINGS

Stereophile visits tube electronics technician Blackie Pagano’s work and repair shop in an 8 minute video. Not headphone centric, but of interest if you like DIY, repairs, tubes, and audio experimenting in general. You can also find it YouTube-embedded below…

OPINIONS

On the Push vs Pull in audio marketing, opinion at Audioholics.

Enough with (the term) the hobby proclaims Stereophile. This is a new article, not a classic reprint.

Not sure where to put this, but since every review is also an opinion, it goes here. It is a book review, “The New Analog” written by Damon Krukowski, and reviewed at Stereophile. This is a fairly new book (audio-publishing wise), it came out in April 2017, and it’s available in many formats, hardcover, e-book, audiobook on CD, and Audible. You can use the “Look Inside” feature at amazon.com to dig deep inside the book. You can also send the start of the book to the Kindle app or your Kindle device. But the “Look Inside” is better than the Kindle sample since you can look deep inside the book. The first few pages are not always a good indicator of whether a book like this might be of interest.