Loaner Gear Request/Progress Master Thread

I'm interested in reaching out to companies to get more gear for SBAF to listen to, and would like to know what you'd like to hear. We have a loaner request forum, but I think it's intimidating for people to post a thread asking to loan a piece of gear (no one posts in that sub forum and it's pretty well hidden). This can be an ongoing thread as new products come out. Please feel free to ask, it can't hurt to try. And I'll do my best to keep on top of this thread and convince companies to send us a loaner.

I have a relationship with Audeze and we will be getting a bunch of cool stuff from them in the near future so please don't reach out to them yourself and there is no need to ask for any of their products here.

@rhythmdevils has reached out to:

• Holo for their Sring DAC maybe, I’m working on it
• Focal for a Utopia NO
• Shanling for an M6 and M6 Pro M6 Pro is available now
• Abyss for an AB-1266 No
• Xduoo for an XD05+ BAL
  
• Swansong headphones
• Softears Turii iems
  
• ampsandsound Amps
• Drop for an HD8XX V2 and JVC FWX1 available now. Alex Grell TWS1 NC iems coming soon
• LTS Headphones coming soon
• Pears SH-3U iems SH-3U and SH-2U coming soon
• Vision Ears for an Elysium iem
• Metrum for a Pavane L3. No
• RME ADI-2 DAC FS
  
• Darlington Phono Pre being offered now
• LSA headphones and other gear LSA Warp 1 power amp available now. Diamond ortho flagship headphone coming soon
• Kennerton Orthos
• Apos Audio for various products Singxer SA-1 balanced amp available now. Moondrop Aria and Kaia and Lime Ears Pneuma IEMs coming soon
• HEDD for an AMT HEDDphone
• Lake People for Musician amps and R2R DACs
• Decware for a Zen Taboo mk4 amp
• DUNU Zen Pro and Falcon Pro iems coming soon
• Monoprice Liquid Gold X available now
• ROSSON AUDIO DESIGN orthos
  
• Austrian Audio Hi-X65 headphones
• RAAL Requisite for their new circumaural headphone (note to self - reach out to them in mid Nov.)
• Dethronay Tender planar magnetic iem
• Shenzhen Audio and Hifigo for a 7hz Timeless ortho iem
• Bakoon Audio for an HPA-01 headphone amp discontinued
• Beyerdynamic for DT700 Pro X and DT900 Pro X

@ChaChaRealSmooth has reached out to:

• Kennerton (closed ortho was in the works; needs update)
• Rosson Audio Design (need an update from Alex Rosson; last chatter was to send us another unit)

On our list:

• Fiio FD-7 when some of our current loaners end
• Grado RS1x

probably not possible due to products from multiple companies making it to hard to organize:

• Koss Energizer for power amps and Stax adapter (I think)
• Power conditioner loaners

 

I thought we go on Patreon for requests since it comes from those who contribute to the site?

 

I don't know about that, but there's been a request thread here for years but it wasn't used. I thought I would resurrect it. I'm mostly looking for ideas for gear people are interested in hearing, so anyone is welcome to post here.

 

I see, well I remember reading about it from Marv I think. If you are getting anything from Xduoo, consider the semi-overpriced but more interesting feature rich XD-05 BAL model.

 

Done!

 

Awesome project. Thanks for initiating it!

I'm unsure what you meant by LTI ones. Googled but did not get anything relevant.
But since you are very into planar, I'm inferring you may mean Underwood Hifi's LSA lineup. Link: https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/lsa-headphones

I'm also interested in all their products.

 

I meant LTS Headphones, from @Marvey 's post here. He's going to send a more polished demo unit to us as soon as he can.

I can’t keep all these 3 letter headphone companies straight

I'll reach out about the LSA headphones though they don't look like orthos as they don't mention it and they talk about an aluminum driver. But I'm happy to reach out.

 

Oh, their website is terrible in presenting info. Should be deciphered on readers' end. Haha.

If I recall correctly, they get planar drivers from Kennerton and add their own tweaks to create original models (HP-1 and HP-Diamond). You can see Kennerton's products here, too: https://kennerton.org/shop/headphones

Spoiler: Specs for both planars (pasted from their product pages)

HP-1: https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/lsa-hp-1

• Frequency response: 15 Hz – 50 Khz
• Impedance: 40 Ohm ± 5%
• Sensitivity: 104 dB / 1 mW
• Driver size: 80 mm
• Driver type: Planar magnetic
• Diaphragm: Metallized polyimide @ 8 µm
• Magnet System: Symmetric push-pull
• Magnet material: NdFeB Specifications and the contents of delivery are subject to change without notice.

HP-Diamond: https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/hp-diamond

• Planar Magnetic Driver 80 mm
• Frequency Response 10-55000 Hz
• Sensitivity 106 dB
• Impedance 38Ω ± 5%

 

cool! Thank you. I’ll reach out to Kennerton as well. What’s with all these tiny companies making orthos?

 

Mysterious things often happen in Russia and eastern Europe.. (no idea why. low labor or material costs?)

 

Very much interested in the Holo May/Spring to compare against Yggdrasil A2. If it's any consolation/brownie points I've got a Drop HD8xx on it's way I'd be willing to put up for a loaner once it arrives and I'd had some time with it myself.

 

It looks likely we’ll get a Spring 3. And if everything goes well maybe a May. They’re thinking it over and I’m trying to convince them what a good idea it is and offering to pay shipping costs. We’ll see.

I’d love an HD8XX loaner. I’ve contacted Drop but haven’t heard back yet. If Marv was involved I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t loan us one.

keep the ideas coming!

 

I'd love a box of mini power conditioners like the ifi ones. So great if we could try them out in our own gear and see if any make a difference. Good for vendors too, as likely to lead to purchases...

 

Apos is offering the following gear for SBAF loaners. I'm not really interested in any of it personally, but you may be. The headphones look interesting. We could do a Topping loaner to show people how shitty they are, but I would rather use loaners on good stuff. I'm guessing the Xduoo tube amp would not sound good but I have no idea.

1. TOPPING D90se DAC
2. xDuoo TA-26 Tube Amp
3. Moondrop Aria IEMs
4. Matrix Mini-I pro 3 DAC/Amp
5. Apos Caspian

Please post and give feedback if you're interested in any of these products or not! I don't know enough about the market and your interests, and these loaners are for you, not me.

Apos has more gear they will be willing to loan, so this isn't our only chance for demos from them. I'm hoping to get a Meze Elite and Meze Audio Rai Penta iems from Apos. I'm more interested in those personally.

 

Is anyone interested in a loaner of anything being offered by Power Holdings? Aside from the Lake People products. (we already have a deal worked out for those)

https://power-holdings-inc.com

 

Musician Audio is a new brand at Power Holdings. The Pegasus R2R DAC ($1100) and Andromeda headphone amp ($865) might be interesting.

https://power-holdings-inc.com/Musician-Pegasus-R2R-Digital-Audio-Converter-p303588349
https://power-holdings-inc.com/Musician-Andromeda-Balanced-Headphone-Amp-p307203959

The amp spec claims 3.8 Watts into 32 Ohms. LOL, might be just about enough for your orthos

Also there's a Violectric dongle; showing 'sold out', though, so they might not be able to supply one:

https://power-holdings-inc.com/Violectric-Chronos-portable-DAC-&-headphone-amp-p382332446

 

Thank you for your suggestions! I wil reach out about these. They do look interesting. My chain is all SE so I can't use the amp without adding a second switcher into my chain which I'm not keein on. I also use the LCD-X almost exclusively right now, so don't need tons of power.

But moar power is always good right? I'll get back to you about whether we can get these.

 

Want to order these when available, Hi-X15.
https://austrian.audio/headphones/

Anything described as having high excursion and low distortion gets me excited. They have a totl open back model already available but that is more money than I want to risk. If SBAF would like to investigate something cheap for the commoners then consider the X15. The specs on the drivers are very slim which is scary so Im not getting hopes up. I would like to have a nice cheap portable closed back that is not an Emu purpleheart etc because I have enough bio drivers already. Also would like a studio monitor stylized headphone because I have a bunch of extra Brainwavz prostock pads that I like but no interesting suitable phones to use them with.

 

done. I’ve asked for a demo loaner of the Hi-X65. Thank you for the suggestion!

I like this being a communal effort. Please don’t hesitate to post a product you think would make a good loaner.