I’ve wanted to listen to a tube amp for ages. Everyone says tube amps are super classy, mostly because they supposedly have this amazing “flavor.” So I got together with a high school buddy to figure out how to put one together. He said the circuit and soldering should be fine—schematics are all over the internet—and the tubes are no problem either, you can just buy ready-made ones. Solder it up using the public mold designs online… So I placed the order. We’d agreed to do the soldering together, but last month his master’s thesis defense was such a pain and kept him so busy that I let him start on his own. When he finished, he said: after soldering it with someone else’s board, someone else’s case, someone else’s power supply, and someone else’s tubes, it ended up exactly the same as the finished units other people sell. So why not just buy a finished one? Yeah… for something this cheap, why not just buy a finished one?

My father said he wanted a Bluetooth speaker, to pair with his phone and listen to music. Sure, when he’s home he blasts music from his phone at some ungodly hour every morning and wakes me up with all that boom-tss boom-tss, but since it’s my tsundere old man asking, and he’s wearing that face of “if it’s convenient for you you can just casually buy me one, of course if you don’t I can buy it myself, it’s not like I’m asking you to buy it or anything”—no reason not to buy it. Money spent on your parents is money well spent. But since this was my first time buying one of these, I didn’t want to go too expensive. Buying a Bose felt like a bit much for him—start with something with good value for money, so it won’t hurt if Dad accidentally loses it. After looking around, I settled on the Sounder Honeycomb 2S+. It happened to be on special at JD, 299 - 100, and with a BaiTiao savings coupon it came to 169 in the end.

A while back I had the Mojo modded and hooked it up to another computer as a DAC, so the laptop has been without a portable DAC lately. Figured I’d pick up something cheap as a replacement. The requirement was to get charge-and-play working as much as possible, instead of the Mojo dying on me every other minute. And the bar for sound quality isn’t that high either — just needs to be a real step up from the laptop itself, ideally without too much hiss. Obviously none of this compares to the high-end demands of mystic audiophile tycoon Wu Lao’er, who runs desktop amps straight into Xiaomi hybrid IEMs — the very setup that pulled him out of the Philips fan camp and got him hooked as a proud Miboy. Given my lowly requirements, I thought it over and went with a Japan-import CYBERDRIVE USB DAC. This CYBERDRIVE USB DAC thing is made by a Taiwanese company, ran a crowdfunding campaign on JD.com, and went for 240 or 300 RMB there, can’t remember which. Claims to be USB-stick-sized and decode DSD.

As a total novice in the audiophile mysticism scene, I inevitably had to go consult a master. So I tracked down Wu Lao Er. Wu Lao Er is the ultimate veteran audiophile — he knows more mystical buzzwords than TFBoys has released singles. I asked Wu Lao Er if he could recommend any earphones, preferably comfortable ones, for lying in bed. “Xiaomi Circle Iron.” Wu Lao Er didn’t even hesitate. “Xiaomi Circle Iron, the ultimate endgame pair. Buy it and you’ll be as free of worldly desires as I am… oh right, what do you listen to?” “I don’t really listen to music. I’m mainly buying them to listen to eroge.” “Then you should want the Xiaomi Circle Iron even more!” Wu Lao Er’s voice went up. “The Xiaomi Circle Iron… the vocals are forward, the mouth shapes are big, sibilance is low, the soundstage is wide but controlled, the mids are fairly tight, leans warm, and there’s a whiff of rosin to it. Perfect for a vocals person like you.” “But my budget is only… 20 yuan.” “What the hell are you gonna buy with 20 yuan, you dumbass? You gotta add some money!”

It’s been almost two years since the Audio-Technica IM03 arrived… I actually really like these buds. At first I thought they sounded muffled, but later, whether they got burned in or something else happened, they ended up being the most “balanced across all three frequency bands” earphones I own. Treble is clear, mids are dense, and while the bass is a bit light, I personally lean toward a cleaner sound anyway — if I want bass, I’ve got the IE80. So these became my first choice whenever I’m in a bad mood. The IM03 I bought was a Japanese-market unit, no warranty. I used to worry it might suddenly die like my late, lamented TF10 — and that day finally came, though it wasn’t within any so-called warranty period.

The Chord Mojo is a DAC/headphone amp combo that’s been getting a lot of buzz lately, mostly because it’s tiny yet supposedly packs a serious punch. According to Digital Multi (数码多), the Mojo’s whole deal is its technical sophistication and advanced build, which is how they got it so small. Science and technology are the primary productive forces, as they say, and I couldn’t resist the temptation to grab one — at the very least it takes up less room in my backpack. Honestly, after getting my hands on it, it feels like a solid deal. The sound is decent, and the tinkering potential is through the roof.

I bought this because after getting the AM2 last time I realized I’d been screwed over. Because right after I bought it, FiiO said: “Every X7 owner gets one chance to buy a module at half price.” So I said: “Well what about me, I already paid full price?” FiiO was very polite about it: “No problem, we’ll have other modules down the road, you can save it for next time.” ……………… So I finally used that chance.

I’d been wanting a hybrid IEM for ages, but I kept going back and forth: K3003, or the DUNU DN2000J? Some people said just get the K3003 and stop thinking about it. But the K3003 is way too fucking expensive. Others said the DN2000J matches the K3003 on technical ability — it just can’t command the K3003 price because it’s made in China. W at work, the train lover, has heard the K3003. He said it’s nothing special: the sound is too high, too floaty, too sharp, not a good buy — especially once he learned I listen to everything. “Honestly, for your taste, an Audio-Technica IM03 plus a Sennheiser IE80 is plenty. Don’t you already have the ER4P? Rotate those three and you’re covered.” But I still wanted a hybrid, just to experience one. At least something above the 100-yuan mark — below 100 yuan I’ve already got the Xiaomi hybrid. Thanks to a JD sale and 12 months of interest-free Baitiao, the dream came true.

The FiiO EM3 is FiiO’s new pair of flat-head earbuds. Honestly, my goodwill toward FiiO has been climbing steadily lately. The accessories are minimal — just the buds themselves and a few foam covers. That’s it. Since it’s positioned under 100 yuan, this earbud’s strengths and weaknesses are equally obvious.

A while back there was a JD sale, and the Edifier S1000 had a pretty good price. I’d been wanting to replace my old Edifier R1600TIII anyway, so I just went ahead and bought it. At the same time, to make swapping in headphones easier, I picked up the Aune X1S, this DAC/amp combo unit. So just getting these two things set up took a hell of a lot of effort.