The term audiophile was known only to a select few up until recently. This audio elitist mentality was only perceivable to those capable of funding their audio addiction with very impressive bank rolls. Even if you were going to purchase yourself a mid-fi set up you were still looking at a price tag in and around the 10k mark. Don’t confuse my syntax, hi-end audio has not gotten any cheaper, in fact high end audio is reaching prices never before seen until now. What I am referring to is audiophile grade products that are actually achievable for the average user. Personal audio technology has finally reached the heights of a high end floor model system, without the floor model price tag. For under $3000 you can achieve the same listening experience that the elitist audiophiles have been enjoying for years, and they paid a lot more than $3K for their setups. Headphone amps like the Burson Audio HA160 make it possible for almost anyone to achieve high end sound on a budget. Let’s check it out:

While we were at CES 2010 we had a chance to sit down with some representatives from AMD and have a little chat. After said chat we where excited to hear that we would be receiving some product for review. A few weeks later and to our surprise we received the AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition. To start with we shocked that we were given their top of the line CPU only to be topped by being given an unlocked black edition. To put it simply we had some fun with this chip. I went and bought a new mother board and video card just to do the tests, thankfully Crucial provided the RAM. Anyways enough talk, let’s take a closer look at what this thing can do: