New Wave

I reviewed the NineWave NW-Studio Pro a while ago and was fairly impressed by its performance. The Japanese high end earbuds maker now has a few more models to offer, including the lower end NW-Studio (around MSRP US$72 in Japan), an upcoming NW-Studio Pro W (not much detail yet) and the more fashionable NW-Studio GEM with added silver and leather parts (presumably a customized NW-Studio Pro).

On the Fast Lane - HifiMan Express

Though the reviews of RE242 have been floating around youtube for a while now, the actual detail about the IEM is scarce at best, well, at least till yesterday. HifiMan just announced a new sub-brand called the 'HifiMan Express' and the RE-242 will be one of the first two products that bear the new brand name (the other product is an entry level USB DAC). The new brand will be aiming toward the entry level market. For what we know now, RE-242 will have 6mm micro-dynamic transducers and iPhone / iPod / iPad compatible mic and remote. No price yet.

B&W

Bowers & Wilkins, the well know loudspeaker manufacturer, is releasing their first IEM to the market in the upcoming August for a cool US$180. It will have a dynamic transducer, a strange ear-loop secure-fit cable, and a semi-opened back design. Well, read the rest of the detail yourself.

[Impression] Maike MK-EL5031

I won’t want to spend much time writing this article as there really isn’t much to write about, so this will be a short impression at best. I picked the Maike up from a local computer accessories shop for US$6 and don’t really expect much from it. Well, for the price tag, I think Maike doesn’t charge you more than what the IEM worth for sure.

Rev. 4

The new Basic Guide to In-Ear-Canalphone rev.4 is here. Basically just minor updates, revises and adding a new small section. Download your PDF copy here.

[Impression] Marshall Minor

Marshall is a fairly well know guitar amp manufacturer. In CES this year, they introduced two new headphones under the brand name, the full sized ‘Major’ and the ‘Minor’ earbuds. However, both headphones are not actually direct products of Marshall but rather seem to be manufactured and sold by a Swedish audio design and OEM firm called Zound Industries (*more on last section).