Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm

A place to write about things I enjoy, for my own edification. Headphones, audio gear, albums, whiskey, wine, golden retrievers etc.

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Lawyer, unabashed nerd and geek. Purveyor and pusher of excellent sci-fi/fantasy, good food, and repartee. He/him. Dog dad/servant to @Goldendenali.

I’m experimenting with Amazon Affiliate status in an attempt to defray some of the costs of headphone reviews; Amazon links may be affiliate links (depending on whether or not I’ve figured out how to use them correctly). Please feel free to buy elsewhere; this is just one way to recoup the costs of this hobby.

  • The Bose Quietcomfort SC; a Solid ANC Offering

    [Original MSRP $349.99, on sale from Costco for $219.99 regularly and $199.99 for Memorial Day 2025, $180-200 at Amazon in December 2025.]

    [Tl;dr: These are a perfectly good pair of ANC headphones that will serve most people very well. They’re not super resolving and their slightly bassy consumer tuning and their layering and instrument separation leave a lot to be desired from an audiophile standpoint, but they sound perfectly nice and the ANC functionality is great; exactly what I’ve come to expect from Bose. They’re also a distinct step up from some of their competitors with regards to their controls and app-accessible tools. They’re my new recommendation for anyone trolling in that market; if I didn’t already own similar products that I like better, I would probably keep a pair of these for travel. Unfortunately, they have to compete with the Airpods Max and Bose 700s in my collection, and those are headphones that I REALLY, REALLY like for this use case.

    Whole-hearted recommendation for most people, they’re just not for me.

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic:  6 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive:  7 out of 10 Denalis]

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  • The Fiio FT1 Pro; a Great New Addition to the Crowded Open-Back Space

    [MSRP $279.99, purchased on Amazon.com in March 2025 at the old MSRP.]

    [Tl;dr: I’m really very impressed by the FT1 Pro; I thought given how good the FT1s were that these might be a disappointment, but they did not let me down. For my general musical preferences, I’m still going with my trusty 6XX most of the time, but for anyone who wants a little more bass in their open-back listening, these may be right up your alley. I will probably grab them anytime I’m listening to EDM or metal.

    I came into this review pretty skeptical of Fiio’s ability to compete with the 6XX and the Edition XS, and I came away reasonably impressed. Fiio really seems to be killing it, lately.

    Editor’s note: after I started this review, Fiio raised the price on these from $209.99 to $279.99 as part of the ongoing tariffs; while I still think these are reasonable at this price, they are definitely less competitive at $280 than they were at $220.

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic:  7 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive:  8 out of 10 Denalis

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  • The Chord Mojo 2: a Ridiculous, but Ridiculously Good, DAC/amp

    [MSRP $650 from Chord, same at Amazon, purchased used from Hawthorne Stereo in spring 2025.]

    [Tl;dr: The Mojo 2 seems, at first, like a ridiculous idea. DACs and amps can’t make that big of a difference in sound, right?! Except, it seems, when they do. I’m not saying the Mojo makes your gear better; but I’m pretty confident in saying that it will get the very best out of almost anything you run with it, and the degree of separation and layering you get from complex music is really quite something.

    I love it. It’s my new favorite DAC/amp, and could replace virtually anything I own in the space in a heartbeat.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 10 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10 Denalis1

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  • The Fiio FT1; a truly excellent budget closed-back

    [MSRP $159.99, purchased on Amazon.com in March 2025.]

    Fiio FT1 in walnut

    [Tl;dr: These are a really great pair of closed back headphones. They’re even better when you consider their pricing, though Fiio has recently announced that they won’t be importing new products in the near future due to the burgeoning trade war so the limited US inventory may be going up in price, at least in the short term (and likely in the long term, given the catastrophic tariffs currently projected for Chinese imports).

    These do *feel* like a $150 product; fortunately, they do not *sound* like a $150 product. I expected them to be good-for-$150-headphones, and instead they’re just good headphones, full stop.

    If I hadn’t also first experienced the Bokeh Closed this month, these would probably have been my best of 2025 headphone. If you can give these a listen, or snag a pair, I strongly encourage you to do so. They might have edged the Edition XS out as the best deal in hifi, at least at their current MSRP.

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic:  8 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 10 out of 10 Denalis

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  • ZMF Bokeh Closed: A Deep Dive into Luxury Sound

    [MSRP $1099, $200 more with a tuning set, more with additional/upgraded cables.]

    Bokeh Closed in its case, connected to the ZMF Lectric C Cables

    [Tl;dr: These are an incredible pair of closed backs, from a technical standpoint, an artistic standpoint, and a dedication to craftsmanship standpoint. They are very expensive even for someone like me, and they’re definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really, really, really like them (and I’m not generally a big fan of closed-back headphones). They’re hands-down my favorite closed-back at this point, and I think they may be my endgame closed-back. If you know me IRL and you like headphones, you should come take a listen to them. If you like woodworking, you should come take a look at them.

    Editor’s note: I put on Massive Attack’s “Heligoland” while I was editing this review, and … damn. These headphones are perfect for this kind of music, so they’re kind of perfect for me.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 10 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 8 out of 10 Denalis

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  • Headfi Audio for Dummies

    [Update 11/16/25: I have completed a tiered recommendations list from $20 to $2,000+, and it’s available here.]

    Last year I wrote a Stereo Building for Dummies post laying out the basics for a loudspeaker system. In the last couple of months I’ve gotten a few similar questions about headphones and their care and feeding, so I thought it would be worth putting together a quick outline of the basics of headphone hifi, or Headfi. I’m going to focus primarily on digital media in this post, but much of it (except the parts about DACs) will also apply to a purely analog system. I’ll start by reiterating my four rules of hi-fi audio, then get into it:

    1. You like what you like. The most important factor in judging an audio system is also the simplest: does it sound good, to you, in your space, and listening to the things you want to listen to? 1 Many of my fellow audio nerds spend a lot of time arguing about objectivity and measurements, and that seems silly to me. Do you like the $5 headphones that came with your phone? Sweet! Enjoy! Do you want to spend $25,000 on a set of Macintosh separates? Awesome, please invite me over to listen to them (and maybe add me to your will?).
    2. Used gear is your friend. Audiophiles spend a lot of time chasing the new hotness, and a lot of their gear ends up in the used market. You have to be a bit careful with used gear from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, but a good used hifi shop will have tested and potentially worked on gear they’re putting out for sale, and can talk to you about it (and, usually, let you listen to it before you buy!).
    3. Components interact in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Even high-quality speakers or headphones may sound less-than-stellar when connected to a particular amplifier or source, and it gets infinitely weirder in a separates-based system.2
    4. No system is the end-all, be-all. Everything can be upgraded. Nothing is forever. Components break, and some of them can’t be easily repaired or replaced. That’s okay. Embrace the change. Half the fun of audio is figuring out what you can swap in for a particular piece of gear and the changes that doing so can bring.

    [Caveat: I’m not an objectivist. I don’t really care about measurements or graphs;3 I care about what a system sounds like to my ears, playing music that I like, in the spaces I am inhabiting. I’m not going to talk about measurements here, but there’s a wild world out there of objectivists on the internet if that’s what you’re looking for. I’m also not a professional reviewer; I don’t (and can’t) listen to everything, and I tend to focus on the stuff I like rather than spending brain power on the things I don’t. Everything I say should be taken with a grain of salt.]

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  • Hifiman Edition XS; a Great Budget(ish) Objective Open-Back

     [ORIGINAL MSRP $499. Purchased for $269 + tax on Amazon in February 2025 (and $269 appears to be the new, semi-permanent MSRP).]

     [Tl;dr: The Edition XS are baby Arya Stealths; they have a lot of similar characteristics, but with a lot more tradeoffs (which you’d expect for a headphone that sells for less than half the price). They’re great for loud, complex songs but struggle a little bit with quieter, more subtle tracks, where they give up some ground to the Sennheiser x Drop 6XX. They can be a tad bright, but my in my experience didn’t cross over into being harsh. Good, solid but impressive base, decent male vocals but maybe a bit of veiling for female vocals.

    At $269 they’re a great deal for a very objective tuned headphone, and I may buy a hard case and carry these as my “working outside the house” pair when I don’t want to haul the 6XX.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 7 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 8 out of 10 Denalis

    [Update 9/15/25: I’m no longer recommending anyone buy anything directly from Hifiman. They still make some great products and some of them represent excellent potential value, but Hifiman’s corporate culture and poor customer service make me unable to recommend anyone buy directly from them.

    If you want a Hifiman product like the Edition XS or Arya Stealth, I strongly recommend buying them from a retailer with a good returns process and that won’t make you deal with Hifiman directly.]

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  • Meze 109 Pro Review

    [MSRP $799. Purchased for $799 + tax on Amazon in January 2025.]

     [Tl;dr: These are my new favorite headphones, period. They’re not objective-focused; their tune is warm (and buttery, and magic), but if that’s something you’re interested in, I cannot recommend these strongly enough. They’re so good out of the box, in fact, that I’m not even using EQ on them. This is my end-game open-back, at least until I can justify trying out the Meze Empyrean 2.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 10 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10 Denalis [I know. I know.]

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  • Hifiman Arya Stealth: My New Favorite Objective Open-Back

    [MSRP $1,599, marked down pretty much everywhere to $5991. Purchased for $599 + tax on Amazon in January 2025.]

    [Tl;dr: I wouldn’t pay the original MSRP, but these are awesome for $599 and that seems to be the new defacto price across the internet. These are hands-down the best objective-tuned headphones I’ve ever listened to. They can be a tiny bit treble-heavy, so it’s convenient to have EQ as an option, but I basically don’t use it 99% of the time so far. In my opinion, you have to pay substantially more to compete with it in an objective headphone, though I personally prefer something like the Meze 109 Pro for $200 more.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10 Denalis

    [Update 9/15/25: I’m no longer recommending anyone buy anything directly from Hifiman. They still make some great products and some of them represent excellent potential value, but Hifiman’s corporate culture and poor customer service make me unable to recommend anyone buy directly from them.

    If you want a Hifiman product like the Edition XS or Arya Stealth, I strongly recommend buying them from a retailer with a good returns process and that won’t make you deal with Hifiman directly.]

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  • Sennheiser x Drop 6XX Review, Seven Years in the Making

    [MSRP $199 at drop.com, occasionally on sale. Bought for $199.99 in September 2018.]

    [Tl;dr: These are a screaming deal for $199. They really benefit from a little bit of power (beyond what most consumer audio jacks will provide, though they sound surprisingly good through the free dongle DAC that comes with iPhones), so if you get a pair it’s worth considering an inexpensive DAC/amp like the Moondrop Dawn Pro, especially if you’re willing to spend $20 for a replacement cable and explore balanced audio.

    These continue to be my first recommendation for almost anyone interested in getting into audio, and will be my go to when people ask me if balanced makes a difference.]

    Scores:

    Cost-agnostic: 7 out of 10 Denalis

    Cost-sensitive: 10 out of 10 Denalis

    Bass1MidsTrebleSoundstageComfort/Fit2
    HD 6XX3B4B3B2CB
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