Marlowe Cruz

BUS RIDE IMPRESSION: Mitchell & Johnson GL2

It is lightweight, not much different from its sibling, the GL1. It does carry a different look on it, or perhaps I will call it flair as it does look a lot classier. I liked the look of the wood on the cups, it does indeed add a lot of style on the entire thing. After all, it carries quite a premium on its price tag so I am exciting no less then the frills of a really nice looking headphones.

Similar to GL1, Mitchell & Johnson employed the same Electrostatz tech on its drivers. Which means, as the GL1 did, the sound should resolve quite fast particular to the lowest frequencies.

BUS RIDE IMPRESSION: Mitchell & Johnson GL1

Posted by Marlowe Cruz

With today’s current technology, plethora of options are available for headphones, making your choice selection a lot more diverse. This is great for us consumers, as we are finally given the range as to what we would like to hear from our cans.

Personally, I am quite please by the fact that I have had a good share of choices, be it in the past or the present. I had the chance to own a few strikingly good pairs of cans (Audeze LCD-2, Hifiman HE400S and HE400I among the few) while I currently own a few more with the likes of Meze 99 Classic, Sennheiser HD6XX, Advanced Alpha, Stax L500 and a modded Grado SR225i. As I go about collecting a few, it gives me quite a good range of option as to what I will use.

BUS RIDE IMPRESSION: Tin HiFi T2 Pro

Posted by Marlowe Cruz

Tin Audio T2. Tin HiFi T2 Pro. What’s up with that?

Yes, the second is supposedly an improved version of the first. Yes, they are from the same company. I understand that some company would do re-branding depending on whatever reasons they have in mind. What I am curious is whether the Pro version indeed is an improvement of the former or I am getting compelled to believe that for China IEMs, their interpretation of a Pro version is supposed to be a more neutral, or in most cases, brighter version of the non-Pro.

BUS RIDE IMPRESSION: KZ AS10

Posted by Marlowe Cruz

So KZ came out with a slew of new IEMs apparently to keep their fans peeled on what they have to offer next. Not really a very new strategy for KZ as of late; just keep those IEMs coming and let the fans decide which ones they will get to replace their older ones. Fortunately for KZ fans, the brand seems to be relentless.

Good thing too that KZ seems to have improved with their recent releases (I think I mentioned this in my review for the KZ ZSA how I disliked the ZS5 and ZS6). Yes, KZ seems to be keen on keeping their bassy or V-shaped house sound, but at the very least they are doing a far better job than before. May it be the case that KZ’s offers are a tad too bassy or warm for me, but at the very least the ones that I tried lately doesn’t have that funky, somewhat unnatural sound from the mentioned models.

BUS RIDE IMPRESSION: KZ ZSA

Posted by Marlowe Cruz

I am not a fan of KZ, or Knowledge Zenith for the more proper brand name. Back in the early days of KZ (I think it was about a couple of years ago, or so), I did remember when I was just starting in the hobby and they did have a couple of models that seems to be pretty successful, the KZ ATE and ED9. I liked both, albeit the bass of the ATE was slightly muddy while ED9’s build could have used a bit of improvement, but boy was I happy back then (ignorance is a bliss I guess) as the best I had back then was my old, trusty ATH IM70. KZ’s formula then was a success; these models may not necessarily be the best there is in the market but they are cheap and offers a much-improved tonality compared to those that I normally get from my phones’ packaging. Shortly after, KZ came up with the ZS3 and ZST which, admittedly, are a pretty good upgrade from the ATE (ZST having a good run even up to this point, being one of the most preferred choices in the entry-level category amongst enthusiasts these days).

Fast forward nowadays, I got quite disappointed with some of their offerings, particularly the ZS5 and ZS6 (ZS5 even got controversial at some point, while ZS6 was waaaaayyy too bass-heavy for my taste, leaving the mids dipped far too much) as I find them deviating a bit from their old style of offering a decent amount of details from their IEMs (my apologies to the ZS5 and ZS6 fans out there). It felt like KZ capitalized on the incorrect notion (in my opinion) that the sound quality is directly proportional to the number of drivers an IEM has.

BUS RIDE IMPRESSION: Senfer EN900

Posted by Marlowe Cruz

Welcome to another episode of Bus Ride Impression! Past couple of weeks has been quite crazy, perhaps crazier than the coming season as the team has been quite busy planning for a few stuff, among them primarily the future of BRI (oh boy, do we have a lot in store for you folks), plus a few events happening in the near future (we realized that the November HiFi Show reared its head), so we had to get rolling with this as this year’s event seems to be quite bigger than the last one. Thus the delay on the reviews.

BUT, excuses are worthless, so we will go ahead and publish yet another one for you before we get missed by you guys. Fortunately, I was able to land several more toys to review (again, mostly by my generous benefactor Lillian, thank you so much ma’am) and I promise that the website should be fully stocked in the next several weeks.

BUS RIDE IMPRESSION: Audiofly AF100

Posted by Marlowe Cruz

Audiofly has been in the in-ear monitor design industry since 2011, and while it has competitors that are in the industry way before that, Audiofly has somehow managed to create a niche in the market with its comfortable design and great signature. Considering its roots started in the land down under, I am pretty surprised that it is shadowed by other brands in the market today particularly in SE Asia.