Show Report Page 2

The 18th Shenzhen International Audio Show had over 200 brands presenting their wares, with the vast majority in the personal audio space and some dedicated to keyboards. For context, CanJam SoCal—the largest CanJam ever—is going on as of the date I write this review and has 110 brands participating, of which many brands are represented by a few retailers. Here, with nearly twice as many entries, almost every single brand had its own table, if not a large booth. There were multiple sections, rooms, and hallways taken up by the show and yet the biggest issues I had was how cramped everything felt. In particular, a lot of brands were positioned on either side of two long hallways with some room in the middle for chairs and people going through. I can't emphasize enough how crowded it was here, so I will just let two photos shared by the show organizers do it for me, with the first of these photos above showing one of these hallways and the second showing an audience waiting for one of the live lotteries to begin. It was also hot and humid in these sections to where it does feel like the Shenzhen International Audio Show has become too big for this venue. Perhaps next time the organizers might consider taking up more space in the same building, or going elsewhere altogether. Demoing open-back headphones here was not the smartest use of anyone's time, although I did try some out. Thankfully I already have many headphones from the usual suspects here at home, if not having experienced them at the recently concluded CanJam London, so I decided the best use of my time at the show would be primarily with IEMs that offer more isolation. China, as with most of Asia, is also highly dominated with IEMs in favor of headphones, as you will see most listed brands operate in that space.

Truthear

MOONDROP was at the front of one of the two main hallways and Truthear was doing the same for the other, which makes sense given these are two of SHENZHENAUDIO's primary brands in terms of marketing and distribution. Truthear, in particular, came out of nowhere in 2022 with the ZERO, and has since put out several IEMs in the $20-150 range. At the show, Truthear had all of them to try out for the Chinese audience which seemed unfamiliar with the brand—perhaps it's exclusively sold outside China for the time being. I have already reviewed all of them, and will have an article soon on the recently released GATe as well, but then I was told there were two prototypes at the table that the reps were taking feedback on. First up, the Truthear ZERO Blue 2—an update to the original Zero and named Blue 2 to distinguish it from the 7Hz Zero 2 that also shares having a collaboration with IEM influencer Crinacle in common with. Long name aside, the ZERO Blue 2 builds upon the original by getting even closer to the Harman In-ear 2019 v2 target and does so with a smaller, shorter nozzle for added comfort. It's not my cup of tea tuning wise, but you don't need to be a fortune-teller to say this is going to sell like hot cakes too. Expect to see this launched in October/November for ~$55, and it will come with a 5 Ω impedance adapter for those who want more bass. Then there was the prototype Truthear PURE, which is effectively a HEXA 2. Don't pay too much attention to the frosted white plastic shells, although I do think these look nice enough to where Truthear should consider making the final version in white itself. Regardless, the current version was tuned almost spot on to the current meta of tuning, which is JM-1 with a 10 dB slope, (watch this video to know more. This tuning is aimed to hit a population average in that the average listener would appreciate the tonality. I found out that this tuning is not for me, with a touch more bass and upper mids/lower treble paired with minimal spatial effects making for some vocals to come off overly prominent in my ears too. Apparently enough people found it hit-and-miss to where this is likely to be worked upon further. The Truthear PURE is likely to show up in early 2025, if not later.

I/O Audio

I/O Audio was alongside Truthear, and this too was seemingly new to the Chinese audience. To be fair, I/O Audio itself only just launched a few months ago with the impressive VOLARE, and day one of the show was also the official launch date of its second product—the 2 DD/6 BA SOGNO. I already have a review sample in and had taken photos + measurements before I flew to China, so I know this is also going for the Harman In-ear 2019 v2 tuning. I'll have more to say about the SOGNO separately, but I suspect you may already know my feelings about the sound signature by now.

Aune

We saw DUNU and Shanling enter the headphones market, among others at the show, and Aune showed everyone how to have an impressive debut with the AR5000 open-back dynamic driver headphones. The brand very recently released its latest headphones which were at the show, and I made a beeline to try out the new SR7000 closed-back headphones. Complete with oodles of marketing talk, the SR7000 goes for a more U-shaped sound that may be too warm/bassy for some. The treble is still on the relaxed side of things, and it offers a reasonably wide soundstage for a closed-back set. Expect to also find a good sense of slam and weight behind the tones, and I'll do a full review of the Aune SR7000 when it comes in. It is already up for sale for ~$650 at various places worldwide, for those interested.

TOPPING

TOPPING was nearby too, and I was already going there to meet a representative I had only spoken to over email thus far. At the TOPPING booth were a few different DAC/amp combo systems, including the new D90 III Discrete DAC and A90 Discrete amplifier powering the MOONDROP COSMO. The DAC is brand new, using TOPPING's first 1-bit DAC architecture to get around any potential chip shortage issues. It offers a more nuanced take on the analytical, neutral sound that TOPPING is most associated with, and I suspect those who have the money for expensive DACs will find this appealing for a lot less than what many other fully discrete DACs go for. The upcoming D900/A900 flagship fully discrete stack was also at the table, although in the interest of time I moved on to TOPPING's first IEMs under its new ArpegEar brand. Called the Hane, this is a single DD set that has a high impedance voice coil and uses four tuning switches associated likely with RC filters inside to change the bass and treble by differing levels, offering as many as 16 different tonalities to choose from. The ArpegEar Hane launched worldwide during the show and costs $129, and I left with a brand-new review unit so expect more details here on TechPowerUp shortly.

FiiO

FiiO's section probably had enough products to validate having its own show, which is all the more fitting when I tell you that I visited FiiO after the show, and we'll have a separate article covering the brand soon. I had also received some of FiiO's new products at home just before I had to fly out, including the $160 closed-back FT1 which seems to be all the rage right now, as well as the $600 FH19 hybrid IEMs. I chose to focus on other things at the show thus, including the upcoming S15 network streamer/DAC/headphones amplifier. Think of the FiiO R7 with some upgraded internals and in a different form factor that better suits an audio rack in the living room, rather than as a desktop device. The S15 was shown off in two colors, has extensive I/O as expected, a nice display on the front, uses AKM flagship DACs, and is expected to cost ~$1000 when launched. FiiO's first planar magnetic IEMs, the FP3 (~$90), were at the show too in addition to the more expensive FX17 tribrid IEMs that did not have final tuning or pricing yet. The FP3 felt decidedly V-shaped with more upper treble energy than I liked, meaning most others will probably find it too much, too. I did point this out with some more specific tuning changes I'd personally do, so let's see what happens when the product launches. There was also the upcoming UTWS5 2025, which goes against FiiO's own confusing naming scheme to make things worse. This is a wireless adapter helping make your wired IEMs more like a TWS set, and is a hotly anticipated update to FiiO's older UTWS5. The newer version goes for an AKM AK4332 DAC and uses a Qualcomm QCC5141 SoC paired with a newly designed charging mechanism, and promises to have 24-bit, 96 kHz playback, rich codec support, and a first party app with PEQ functionality. The UTWS5 2025 is currently being tested internally with no promised launch date just yet. Joining the wireless train was FiiO's upcoming BTR17 premium wireless portable DAC/amp, as well as the low profile BT11 Bluetooth adapter which can add LDAC and aptX support for your phone and/or PC. Basically, every single thing covered here feels like something many of our readers would be interested in, which is a testament to FiiO's product line.

xDuoo

If there ever was a brand willing to try things, even if they may not always work out, xDuoo should be right at the top. The brand is known more for its desktop sources, such as the TA-22 we saw before, although I would argue the xDuoo portable source line is far more intriguing. The XD05 series, for example, has various entries at different price levels and offers a variety of features combined with extensive I/O and ease of use to where I really think people should strongly consider these over the likes of more expensive offerings from Western brands. At the show, xDuoo showcased its upcoming XD05 T which uses small tubes to, well, be a portable tube amplifier fed off an internal DAC too. Then there's the XD05 Pro, which is like a Swiss army knife of portable sources. You can change out the base amplifier board, swap out op-amps, even change the DAC module to switch from the default ESS ES9039PRO to, say, the AKM AK4499EX or the ROHM BD34301 which will offer a different sound and the ability to further customize and synergize the unit to your IEMs/headphones/personal preference. The XD05 Pro got more love at the show with a new DAC module in the form of the Wolfson WM8741 DAC, which is highly limited in nature and to my ears felt like a more resolving version of the ROHM DAC that I was wanting to see. I understand an R-2R DAC module is also in the works, so anyone wanting to tinker with a single DAC/amp to get different sound signatures should have the xDuoo XD05 Pro in their shortlist.

DITA Audio

DITA Audio is a Singapore-based IEM brand that is most known for its single DD IEMs going into the thousands of dollars. They tend to be colored in tonality and have many fans who prefer this specific sound signature, although recently DITA has made waves for its Project M hybrid driver IEMs which are also relatively affordable for the brand. Shown at the Shenzhen International Audio Show was DITA's Concept KA1, also a project in the making and arguably way cooler than most things at the show. The KA1 is best seen as small and portable headphones, built into what look like glass frames that fold similarly allowing you to possibly just pack the entire thing in a small case. The left and right sides are independent audio transducers, and these can be IEMs/earbuds/semi-open earphones with both MMCX and 2-pin connectors to allow you to use your own cables. DITA also plans to have Bluetooth adapters with integrated batteries to plug into these connectors to make the KA1 fully wireless, and the finished device should be modular, too. DITA says the frame and connectors are already finished, although the actual modules are still in the works. Expect to see release perhaps early next year, if not sooner, with a starting price ~$150. There was also an upcoming set of IEMs at the booth, the DITA Mecha, although I missed it since I only saw photos and mentions of the set after the show ended. Either way, DITA Audio has my attention now!

Elysian Acoustic Labs

One brand that has always had my attention is Malaysia-based Elysian Acoustic Labs, with the recently launched Pilgrim being a commercial success. The brand is most known for its high end IEMs, with the current flagship Annihilator starting at $3000. Around the time the $399 Pilgrim was announced, work on the next super flagship from Elysian Acoustic Labs was basically an open secret. So when I saw a new set of Elysian IEMs at the show, my first thought was this had to be that halo product. I tried it on and was immediately taken aback by the wonderful treble reproduction and the exceptionally wide soundstage, which further strengthened my thoughts. But then I realized this was sounding more like a baby Annihilator, with a similar tuning down to the massive bass and forward mids presentation, except with weaker imaging and resolution. Indeed, the upcoming Apostle is closer to an Elysian DIVA replacement than anything else, and yet I suspect many will end up liking the set once they realize it will cost closer to $1500 when it launches in a couple of months.