Hardware

Denafrips Ares 12th-1 — R2R From the East

The Denafrips Ares has been the audiophile community’s favourite entry-level R2R DAC for years. The 12th-1 revision refines what was already an excellent formula — a resistor-ladder DAC that offers an alternative to the delta-sigma mainstream at a price that doesn’t require remortgaging.

Build & Design

Impressively solid for the money. The aluminium chassis is well-machined, the internals are neatly laid out, and the overall presentation punches above its price class. Inputs include USB, coaxial, and optical, with both RCA and XLR outputs. The front panel has a clean, minimalist design with indicator LEDs.

Schiit Bifrost 2/64 — American Multibit Magic

Schiit Audio has been the rebellious uncle of the audio world since 2010 — proudly American-made, irreverently named, and committed to offering genuine performance at sensible prices. The Bifrost 2/64 is their mid-range multibit DAC, and it represents everything Schiit does well: honest engineering at an honest price.

Build & Design

Solid aluminium chassis, clean layout, built in Valencia, California. The Bifrost has a reassuringly chunky feel that belies its price point. The front panel is clean with just a few indicator LEDs, and inputs include USB, optical, and coaxial. It’s not flashy — Schiit’s aesthetic is “the sound is the feature.”

RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE — Big Brother to My Beloved ADI-2

As a devoted RME ADI-2 DAC FS owner, the ADI-2/4 Pro SE is the upgrade path I’ve been eyeing with a mixture of desire and dread — desire for the improved specifications, dread for what it would do to my wallet. This is RME’s flagship: a combined AD/DA converter that’s equally at home in a mastering studio and a high-end listening room.

Chord Mojo 2 — The Portable DAC That Started a Revolution

The original Mojo was a phenomenon — a pocket-sized DAC/amp that sounded so good it made people question their desktop setups. The Mojo 2 builds on that legacy with improved features and the same Rob Watts FPGA magic that makes Chord products sound unlike anything else. British engineering at its most eccentric and brilliant.

Build & Design

The Mojo 2 is tiny — genuinely pocket-sized at 83g. The distinctive coloured ball buttons control volume and input selection, changing colour to indicate level. It’s a design language unique to Chord that you’ll either love or find baffling. Build quality is solid with an aluminium shell that feels premium and durable.

Topping D90LE — Measurement King Meets Music

Topping has become synonymous with measurement-perfect audio. Their products routinely top Audio Science Review’s charts, and the D90LE is their flagship DAC — a device that measures so well it essentially eliminates the DAC as a variable in your chain. But does perfect measurement equal perfect listening?

Build & Design

Clean, minimal, and professional. The D90LE has a full-size desktop footprint with a clear OLED display, remote control, and comprehensive connectivity — USB, optical, coaxial, AES/EBU, and Bluetooth (with LDAC). The build quality is solid aluminium, and the overall presentation is understated but premium.

Campfire Cascara — Campfire’s Over-Ear Debut

Campfire Audio made their reputation in IEMs, crafting some of the most distinctive-sounding earphones in the portable audio world. The Cascara marks their first venture into full-size over-ear headphones, and like everything Campfire does, it’s got a character all its own.

Build & Design

The Cascara is immediately distinctive with its ceramic-coated aluminium earcups and compact form factor. It’s smaller than most full-size headphones, which makes it more portable but also means the earpads are tighter around larger ears. Build quality is good — the materials feel premium and the overall construction is solid if a bit unconventional.

Meze 109 Pro — Meze Goes Dynamic and Delivers

After making their name with planar and hybrid designs, Meze Audio surprised everyone by releasing a dynamic driver headphone. The 109 Pro uses a 50mm beryllium-coated driver in a design that screams “this is a Meze” from across the room. As someone who’s already fallen for the Poet and the 105 AER, I was eager to see what Meze could do with a good old-fashioned moving coil.

Grado SR325x — Brooklyn Rock and Roll Cans

Grado Labs is the punk rock of headphone companies. Family-owned since 1953, hand-built in Brooklyn, New York, and stubbornly committed to their own vision of what headphones should sound like. The SR325x is their mid-range offering, and it’s as opinionated as everything else Grado makes.

Build & Design

Let’s be blunt: the Grado aesthetic is an acquired taste. The SR325x looks like it was designed in 1985 and never updated. The foam pads, the basic headband, the retro styling — it’s either charmingly authentic or hopelessly dated, depending on your perspective. I find it endearing, but I can see both sides.

Focal Bathys — Wireless With Audiophile Credentials

I’ll be honest — I’ve always been sceptical of wireless headphones claiming audiophile status. The mere mention of Bluetooth to a headphone purist usually triggers a lecture about lossy codecs and latency. But Focal, the same company behind the Utopia and Clear, decided to have a go at Bluetooth ANC headphones. And they’ve made something rather special.

Build & Design

Premium Focal through and through. The Bathys looks and feels like a proper Focal product — the aluminium yokes, the microfibre and leather earpads, the satisfying build quality. At 350g with all the wireless electronics inside, it’s well-balanced and comfortable. The USB-C DAC input means you can bypass Bluetooth entirely for a wired connection that genuinely rivals dedicated wired headphones.

Sennheiser HD 660S2 — The HD600 Gets a Younger Sibling

As a devoted HD600 owner since 1997, any new Sennheiser in the 6-series range gets my immediate attention. The HD 660S2 is Sennheiser’s latest revision, and the question every HD600/650 owner asks is simple: is this the upgrade I’ve been waiting for, or another sidegrade?

Build & Design

If you’ve ever held an HD600, the 660S2 will feel instantly familiar. The same general form factor, the same reassuring clamp, the same utilitarian German design philosophy. The updates are evolutionary: the headband padding is improved, the finish is slightly more refined, and the cable terminates in a 4.4mm balanced connector (with a 6.3mm adapter included).