Year's end is traditionally greeted by highlighting the most worthwhile discoveries of the past twelve months. To refamiliarize yourself with the awards we gave out this year, including one ultra-rare Lunar Eclipse, visit this page. For those who keep track of these things, 2015 saw me add to my PR team of Pleasure & Reviewing the Eversound Audio Essence active speakers, Fore Audio DAISy1 tube hybrid DAC and Sounddeco Sigma 2 loudspeakers. For today's feature however, I want to give a shout-out to select headfi items. That's because in general, high-end audio coverage gives this segment short shrift. Of course we now have many dedicated headfi publications. But really, they are for those who are already knee-deep into it; or sufficiently intrigued to partake from afar. Focusing on it here is intended to send a "perhaps it's time" tickle to those who love music and hifi but haven't yet seriously considered immersion into the portable aspects of our hobby. To start off with, here's something I haven't even heard yet. Why I list it at all and do so here at the very beginning will get clear in a moment.
A most honourable SOB mention—that's short for Suspected Of Brilliance—goes to Meze Headphones' currently €309 99 Classics which Polish contributor Dawid Grzyb already had for a few days when I wrote this. As a prior devout owner of Sennheiser's HD800 who recently upgraded to HifiMan's HE-1000, Dawid knows premium headphones when they whisper sweet somethings into his ears. Even prior to my own listening, it's dead obvious to me how industrial design and execution plus Meze's entire online presentation operate at a very high level. I'll use that as jumping-off point for a brief riff on pride of ownership. It doesn't matter what it is. Nearly everyone, over their lifetime, develops an interest, then deep appreciation for something. Interest leads to immersion, immersion to eventual recognition of different grades of quality. This goes beyond pure utility. It flows into aspects of artistry, mastery, technique, origin and intangibles. For example, I enjoy finely made Mexican boots from Old Gringo and Cuadra; heavy Chamois or 7.9oz Jacquard flannel shirts in Indian blanket patterns from the likes of Cabela's, Orvis or Carhartt. Someone else could be into motorcycles or vintage cars; watches; hats; jewelry. Painters like my wife get deeply into the quality of their brushes and paints. Musicians get into musical instruments where the basic usefulness of their work tools ascends to something deeper and higher.

Most audiophiles develop that type appreciation for our hifi appliances. It's not about just their performance or sound. It's about quality of assembly, overall styling, their designer's approach and creative imprimatur, the artistic statement made with and by the gear. For others, hifi never develops past the most rudimentary appliance status. They won't see or understand anything beyond it. Yet they could be very serious 'philia' people about tailored suits; rare orchids; Bourbon; cigars; cats; netsuke; hand-carved buttons - anything which takes their fancy. With that multi-layeredness in mind which escapes those not keyed in but is clear as day to those who are, here come two select headfi-related items that hit not just those single high C notes but complex lingering chords which go beyond just the sound. There's a lot of appeal just in being exceptionally well made. Add top performance and pride (and pleasure!) of ownership kick in hard. Mule time.


Campfire Audio's $749 Lyra isn't merely a top-class in-ear headphone that sounds amazing and is beautifully made. It includes a Beryllium driver, a ceramic enclosure, silver tinsel wire, foam and rubber tips, a brush and a faux leather zippered pouch lined with fleece. It's super comfortable and highly efficient to take off with even weak-ass sources. And its sonic signature is wall-of-sound dense and quite bassy to paint with deep rich colours over a strong foundation. Place them just so and they'd fit onto a postage stamp. As I said at the end of their review, "if magic is technology beyond our comprehension, then this really does border on magic!" For less scratch than many audiophiles allocate to a single power cord, you can acquire a truly wonderful IEM transducer that'll show many big speakers a clean set of heels on resolution, bandwidth and linearity. It really isn't that scary to dip yer toes into them thar still dark waters.
To outfit you with the second item you'll need—even if your idea of the wild outdoors is limited to your balcony, porch, backyard or bed—consider the €899 Questyle QP1R. If its alphabet soup catches in your throat, go phonetic and think of it as the cupid one. Being made in the Foxconn compound which assembles the iPhone, this Chinese DAP looks every bit as good as an Apple or Samsung smartphone. Its core functionality copies the iPod Classic but then adds hi-rez support, more than 400GB of plug'n'play memory (64GB internal flash memory, two user-swappable micro SD cards already available at 200GB/ea.) and far superior sound. I dock mine in a Belkin with height-adjustable mini USB to keep it charged for 24/7 action on my desk, on my nightstand and in the workout room. To do the stationary deed, go 3.5mm stereo analog or Toslink digital out. Who needs a CD player, laptop or PC/Mac when this brick is good enough to even front a big system? And then of course you can leash it into your car stereo, stick it into your coat pocket with a pair of Lyra in your ears and hit the tube, board walk, plane or dingy hotel room. Hey, better make that a swanky hotel room to stay on the level.

As it happens, should any member of the "great unwashed hordes of infidels" spot you wearing the Lyra whilst working the QP1R's scroll wheel in public, they'll instantly dig the aesthetics and noble materials. Rather than react repulsed by hardcore hairshirt appeal, brutal overkill or other travesties against common sense which are so common with big-rig high-end hifi, they'll relate to these sizes and form factors. Should they ask whether they could take a quickie listen... you'd be making converts for better sound without even trying. My two selections here thus hit deeper than just self gratification for their owners. It's about double-teaming on evangelism for high-performance playback by going about it in ways that are relevant to regular music consumers.
My second SOB distinction goes to Heco's €3'000/pr Direkt, a 95dB efficient retro-style big paper-woofer 2-way. It's got a waveguided slightly larger than normal soft-dome tweeter and a cab twice as wide as it is deep. This resurrects vintage Tonmöbel appeal. Its formal review wasn't completed yet when I wrote this but it already warranted a mention as something our hobby needs more of: far more than wispy lip service for past accomplishments which, by contrast, suggest that just perhaps, much of modern sound is headed down the wrong path. This paves the way for an attitude adjustment à la Direkt. If nothing else, focusing on higher sensitivity not with a single-driver speaker but a high-output 'normal' multi-way design with 25Hz reach is definitely something one likes to see more of. That's because it opens doors to less costly simpler gain circuits for potentially better sound whilst doing it all for less money.
In the end of course, no matter what type of gear you enjoy most, the plain truth is, no music, no audio. It's thus only fitting that I close out this short page with a mention of my absolute favourite album discovery of the year: Revelation by The Khoury Project on enja. The title really says it all. For those who need more, think advanced Arabian chamber music between three brothers—Elia Khoury on oud, Basil Khoury on violin, Osama Khoury on qanun—accompanied by Guillaume Robert on upright bass and Inor Solongo and Youssef Hbeisch on sundry percussion. The level of musicianship is awe inspiring and recording quality is enja-typical high. This music is complex and multi-layered in ways that reveal new nuances over many happy returns. Many of the tracks are quite lengthy to truly develop their ideas and tell stories. If you only got one single thing out of reading 6moons this year, be sure to pay no heed to our hardware obsessions and make it about the music of Revelation. Thanks for reading us, happy holidays and to a healthy and prosperous 2016. Zum Wohl!