Hi-res audio means high prices, right? Maybe not. Earfun, the brand best known for its affordable earbuds, reckons its new EH-100 earbuds deliver serious sound for just a hundred bucks – and their hi-res DAC is even cheaper at just $80. On top of that, Earfun is discounting them further until 15 October.
So, what do you get for a relatively small amount of money? The EH-100 are hi-res audio certified wired IEMs with a dual driver architecture (10mm and 6.8mm) and a custom balanced armature driver to handle the highs. They're made from aluminum, use the standard two-pin IEM connection and include two sets of tuning nozzles, which Earfun says enable you to adjust the sound signature: one is described as balanced and the other as ambient, with a boost to the low end. Frequency response is 16Hz to 40KHz, impedance is 16 ohms and sensitivity is 103dB at 1kHz.
We rate Earfun very highly – their Earfun Air Pro earbuds are currently the best budget ANC earbuds you can buy – so these are seriously intriguing, especially with the discounted bundle. As is the firm's new DAC.
Big sound from a little DAC with a low, low price
Earfun has also launched a new USB/C DAC, the EA100. It has 3.5mm unbalanced and 4.4m balanced connections as well as a USB-C to USB-A adapter for older hardware. Inside there's an ESS ES9038Q2M chip and it decodes 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512. Despite its small size, there are independent left and right amps putting out up to 195mW at 32 ohms with a 121dB signal to noise ratio – more than enough to drive the Earfun IEMs and many other wired headphones. A little LED changes color to show you connection status and the current sample rate.
One of the most interesting features of the EA100 is a little button. It enables you to change modes between UAC 2.0 and UAC 1.0 standards for audio transfer, which should mean better compatibility across a wider range of devices – particularly PCs and portable games consoles.
If these devices sound as good as the specs suggest, they could be genuine bargains at their introductory prices. You've got until 15 October before the prices go up. But for now, you're looking at $70 / £63 for the headphones and $80 / £70 for the DAC, or you can get both for $117 / £104.
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