You can find anything on Amazon—plus hundreds or thousands of versions of that thing. If its virtual shelves were translated into a brick-and-mortar storefront, it would probably be the most overstimulating space in the world. Take power banks, for example. Search “power bank” on Amazon and you’ll get more than 50,000 results, ranging from well-known brands like Anker and Jackery to obscure brand names with zero product reviews. There are hundreds and hundreds of companies and sellers to sift through, with varying capacities, port options, and charging speeds on offer.

So how do you know which brands are high-quality? Which listings are legitimate? What’s a good price to pay? Are any of these power banks actually on sale and worth buying, or are the discounts fake?

It’s remarkably easy to sell products on Amazon (as evidenced by its millions of sellers). That means there are plenty of subpar product listings that come from sketchy sellers—often with gibberish names or multiple sellers that are using the same photos and claiming to sell the same product. While many items on Amazon are safe and legitimate, you do need to be aware of the risks when you’re shopping. The site has problems with fake reviews and counterfeit items. Amazon has fairly good return policies, including an A-to-Z guarantee for items sold by third parties, but ideally you want to avoid having to deal with a return in the first place.

We can help. Below are a few tips for shopping at the Everything Store, especially ahead of Prime Big Deal Days on October 6 and 7, to make it more likely everything will arrive as advertised.

Updated September 2026: I’ve refreshed this story with current tips and information.

Buy Direct

Screenshot: Louryn Strampe

When possible, you should buy items directly from Amazon. Amazon keeps a better eye on its own inventory than it does on items sold by third-party sellers. Items it sells directly are more likely to arrive as advertised and qualify for free two-day Prime shipping. Because Amazon manages everything, returns are usually painless. Sometimes you can even get refunds for defective items without having to return them at all.

If you’re already checking out a product on Amazon, like our favorite iPad, always make sure the seller info says “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.” This information is typically in one of two places. Either it’s under the red price (and green “In Stock” text) or under the yellow Add to Cart and orange Buy Now buttons on the right rail. It’s also under those buttons on the Amazon app.

Amazon

If you’re browsing through Amazon listings, filter the site’s search results to only show items sold by Amazon.com. Buying an item sold and shipped by Amazon generally makes delivery and customer-service inquiries more straightforward. However, it does not guarantee that the product is high-quality or authentic, so you should still investigate the brand and listing. I’ll use the Google Pixel 10a as an example of a product you might search for. It is our pick for the best affordable phone, after all.

Step 1: Search for a particular item in Amazon’s search box with the category set to “All.” In this case, I searched for “Pixel 10a.”

Step 2: Amazon’s search should select the right department automatically, but if needed, you can navigate to the menu on the left and click on a department that fits.

The launch of the iPhone Duo is a play to reinvigorate iPhone sales by offering something new to consumers. It may make up close to half of the foldables market by 2027.

Apple’s introduction of the iPhone Duo confirmed long-time rumors of the development of a folding smartphone. Its launch wasn’t without a small amount of sticker shock, with consumers expected to pay $1,999 for the base model.

However, before the iPhone Duo makes it to consumer hands, analysts are already claiming it will be a help to Apple’s iPhone fortunes.

In Sunday’s report from The Information, IDC analysts forecast that Apple will be selling 10 million units in the first 12 months after launch.

The model will introduce “novelty” and help drive high-end customers willing to pay the highest prices for whatever Apple brings out, says IDC VP for data and analytics Francisco Jeronimo.

A revenue bump up

Revenue from iPhones hasn’t really changed much over the last few years. With relatively flat revenue from 2022 to 2025 and just a 4% rise in the fiscal year ending September 2025, thanks to four-year upgraders. Apple had work to do on improving matters for its flagship product.

Jeronimo believes that a product like the iPhone Duo could help lift sales by nudging consumers who upgrade more frequently to do so. Novelty is apparently a big factor for some consumers.

The first year’s 10-million-unit forecast should rake in $27 billion for Apple, including consumers paying for the more expensive, higher-capacity models. This would reflect 6% of Apple’s total expected revenue for the fiscal 2026 year.

The skew to more costly variants isn’t new, as it’s been observed in other rival foldables, such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8.

While expensive, analysts believe that existing consumers who opt for the already-costly Pro and Pro Max versions could transition over to the Duo.

Trade-ins will also help sales for the Duo, as will the increasingly popular use of installment plans.

A big market impact

For Apple, the sales from foldable smartphones in general are a good reason to step in to the market. Global revenue from that product category rose 16% year-over-year in 2025, versus a 7% growth for non-foldables, IDC said.

Apple can also expect to secure a large amount of the foldables market with the iPhone Duo alone.

To IDC, Android foldables made up close to 90% of the niche in 2025. The 2026 forecast has Apple netting about 30% to Android’s 50%, with 2027 seeing iOS hitting 40% of foldable market share

Apple certainly has the potential to make big swings in markets its only just entering. Unless there is a massive blunder, the forecasts should be in the ballpark of reality.

The takeaway: Game Boy enthusiasts with physical cartridge libraries who are unwilling to pay $240 for an Analogue Pocket might want to consider the recently launched FPGB Mini. Although it isn’t quite as versatile as Analogue’s well-regarded handheld, it still plays ROMs and cartridges with virtually perfect emulation accuracy at less than half the price. It’s also barely larger than a Game Boy cartridge.

FunnyPlaying has launched a smaller version of its budget-priced rival to the Analogue Pocket. Slightly cheaper but with the same software capabilities, the FPGB Mini might be as small as a faithful Game Boy clone will ever get.

Most retro handhelds, like Ayaneo’s products, emulate the Game Boy and other classic systems entirely in software, typically running Android or Linux. In contrast, devices like the Analogue Pocket, Game Bub, or FPGB use FPGA-based hardware emulation.

FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) are integrated circuits whose logic isn’t hard-wired at the factory. As such, they can be reprogrammed at the hardware level for various purposes, including imitating retro game consoles. This lets them emulate retro devices essentially flawlessly with low TDPs, meaning longer battery life.

However, following recent price hikes, the Analogue Pocket retails for $240, while the Game Bub starts at $249 and climbs to $300 for its limited-edition color. FunnyPlaying, meanwhile, sold through its initial batch of 20 early-bird FPGB Mini units at just $69, and even its standard $89 MSRP significantly undercuts the competition.

Despite measuring just 113 × 64 × 22 mm, only slightly larger than a Game Boy cartridge, the FPGB Mini is a fully featured emulation handheld. Its 2.98-inch, 800×720-pixel IPS screen displays at exactly five times the original Game Boy’s resolution, its 1800 mAh rechargeable battery promises four to six hours of gameplay, and a microSD slot (up to 32GB) handles digital ROMs and firmware updates while USB-C takes care of charging. With a USB-C adapter, it also supports Game Boy link cables.

Compared to the Analogue Pocket, the FPGB Mini’s main drawback is that it doesn’t support Game Boy Advance games or emulators for other retro consoles. Its tiny form factor also prevents inserting cartridges with extra hardware features such as rumble.

Also Read: GPUs vs. FPGAs: What’s the Difference?

The FPGB Mini’s first batch sold out within minutes, but it’s expected to restock on FunnyPlaying’s online store, which also sells custom and replacement screens, motherboards, batteries, and other components for official Game Boy models. Natalie the Nerd’s shop is another well-regarded source for Game Boy parts and documentation.

Lena Schiwitz explores the topic of trust in AI, and how building a career in tech isn’t always about coming from a traditional background.

In less than a month, Lena Schiwitz – an AI operations manager at Zurich-based start-up MoodTalk – will be heading to the University of Oxford as one of 35 students taking part in a new AI master’s programme. 

Today, much of her work is focused on artificial intelligence and how it can be integrated into consumer and internal processes – and specifically, how organisations can actually adopt it. 

Schiwitz told SiliconRepublic.com, “That means building AI workflows, working with customers and looking closely at where people trust the technology, where they hesitate and what makes it genuinely useful in their day-to-day work.

“Our broader focus is on making knowledge inside organisations more accessible. Often, the information leaders need already exists somewhere in the organisation, but it is spread across teams and levels and does not reach the right person at the right time.

“We use AI to gather perspectives and identify patterns across them, so leaders can understand what is happening without waiting for information to slowly move through meetings, reports and layers of management.”

The concept of finding the right person at the right time, or being the architect of someone else’s journey, is one that is very personal to Schiwitz, whose career trajectory was initially headed in a very different direction. 

She started out by studying to be a national school teacher in her native Austria and spent two years working in childcare. 

“At the time, I had very little exposure to technology or to what careers in tech actually looked like. I had always loved maths, logical thinking and figuring out how things work. I just never knew there were careers built around those interests,” she said. 

“That changed when I moved to Switzerland to work as a nanny. Both parents in my host family worked in tech, and over dinner, they would talk about products they were building, problems they were solving and decisions they had to make. I found those conversations fascinating. For the first time, I saw a professional world that matched the way I liked to think.”

From there, she studied business information technology, a course in a field that many of her peers had prior experience of via a range of apprenticeship programmes and previous jobs. 

“I had spent those same years working with children. At first, that felt like a disadvantage,” she said. 

“But over time, I realised I was bringing a different perspective. My background had taught me a lot about how people learn, what motivates them, how they respond to change and why the same approach does not work for everyone.”

Once she completed her bachelor’s thesis on trust in AI, the pieces all fell into place and she found, for the first time, there was an outlet through which she could combine an understanding of people and learning with a knowledge of technology and AI. 

“I realised that I was most interested in the space where those things meet, understanding what technology can do and what people need in order to actually use it.”

AI – tool or collaborator?

The concept of trust in AI is one that is particularly fascinating for Schiwitz, who explained that we are starting to adapt to the tech almost as much as it is adapting to us. 

“A few years ago, we mostly asked AI isolated questions. Now we give it access to our meetings, documents, decisions and, increasingly, our organisational memory. We record conversations knowing they can become searchable later. We document information differently because we expect AI to understand the context,” she said. 

“I find that shift fascinating. We are building AI around the way humans work, while at the same time starting to organise our work around what AI can understand. And this is happening faster than the norms around it can develop. 

“We are still deciding what AI should remember, what it should forget, how much context it should have and which decisions should remain human.”

She finds herself driven by a need not only to build better technology, but to be a part of figuring out how humans and AI should work together, as “many of the most important questions are still open”.

The right kind of trust

Schiwitz noted, however, that building trust in AI needs to be about more than simply making the human more trusting of technology, especially in cases where it may be unwarranted. 

During her academic research, she discovered that it isn’t necessarily difficult to increase people’s trust in AI in scenarios where the artificial intelligence hasn’t actually been improved. 

“For my bachelor’s thesis, I changed relatively simple things around an AI assistant. I explained more clearly why people were interacting with it, made its limitations more visible and gave the conversation more structure. The AI itself did not become any smarter, but people’s trust in it increased significantly and the way they interacted with it changed,” she said. 

“I found that fascinating, but also slightly uncomfortable. I had started my research asking how I could make people trust AI. By the end, I was asking whether more trust should even be the goal. If relatively small design choices can change how much people trust an AI, then trust is not necessarily evidence that the system deserves it.”

Following this, she began to think about AI in organisations and how the goal should never be simply maximum trust, but “helping people trust AI when they should and question it when they should not”.

And her unique pivot into tech, whereby she came in with a less-than-traditional educational background, has aided this desire to cultivate real trust in AI and tech teams as a whole.

“For a long time, I thought I had entered technology too late. Now I think I simply entered it with a different perspective. My background in education still shapes the questions I ask about technology, especially around how people understand, trust and use it,” she said. 

“This autumn, I am starting Oxford’s MSc in Artificial Intelligence for Business alongside my work. For me, it feels less like another change of direction and more like going deeper into the questions I have been following all along.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? CNET publishes daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. And here’s a page that Wordle players should be sure to bookmark. We’ve made a list, with help from the Oxford English Dictionary, showing which letters show up the most in English words. So if your starter word isn’t getting the job done, consider switching to one of the words that uses more of the highly ranked letters. (I like TRAIN and CLOSE.)

Today’s Wordle answer has a first letter that I rarely guess. Need a tip or two? Read on for hints and the answer.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has two vowels.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with W.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with N.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can mean to stop sleeping.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is WAKEN.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

 Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Sept. 18, No. 1,917, was SNOWY.

Recent Wordle answers

Sept. 14, No. 1,913: RINSE

Sept. 15, No. 1,914: DEALT

Sept. 16, No. 1,915: WISPY

Sept. 17, No. 1,916: THETA

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.

See full bio

In this week’s Sunday Reboot, a London Apple Store gives hope for the future of the company’s mall locations.

Sunday Reboot is a weekly column covering some of the lighter stories within the Apple reality distortion field from the past seven days. All to get next week underway with a good first step.

An Apple Store near the UK HQ

On Monday, I found myself getting up hours earlier than normal and getting on a train to London for an appointment. While I could easily complain about the travel (three delayed trains and the London Underground is astoundingly noisy), one column-worthy thing did occur on that day away from the keyboard.

I had some hours free before my trip back across the UK, and I was close enough to Battersea Power Station to pay a visit. Battersea Power Station is actually Apple’s UK headquarters, which was used to display Christmas trees designed on an iPad on its towers last year.

Obviously, there’s no chance of me going into Apple’s offices there for a tour, but there is also an Apple Store.

Battersea Power Station’s main space is now a massive retail emporium, where you can pay big brands big money for expensive things. Basically, it’s now a mall inside a very iconic London location.

Outside Apple Battersea. It’s like a fishbowl.

We have discussed the store in the past, including its launch in 2023. However, in AppleInsider’s ongoing campaign to visit every store possible and to comment on it, this was an opportunity I had to take.

Apple exists on the ground floor in one of the larger spaces, opposite Ralph Lauren and Lacoste, near to Ray-Ban and Nike. It has a nice mostly-glass frontage, interrupted by structural frames around the panes and a large Apple logo in the middle.

This is fairly pedestrian, until you go onside and are greeted by the famous tables. There are lot of them, and this is also typical of the Apple retail experience.

However, this isn’t quite the usual mall grey-everywhere generic mall fit-out you’d see in most places. This was an almost completely wood-clad store.

Looking down Apple Battersea. So much wood.

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All of the side avenues were there, except there wasn’t the usual massive video wall that gets used for Today at Apple sessions or events. There was a lit poster near the door, a smaller and more conventional television for showing Apple TV in one corner, but no video wall at all.

There was a nice alcove in one corner that is used to host Apple Vision Pro sessions. It was a nice break-out area, with seating on the sides and a central table showcasing the very-expensive headset.

Looking upward the lights were masked slightly by a drop ceiling, consisting of lots of vertical slats, running the entire length of the room. It certainly made the room feel longer than the sizable space truly occupied, and it was a nice touch.

The Apple Battersea Genius Bar, with the dual-height counters.

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Of particular note is the Genius Bar, which takes up space at the back left corner. There are two avenue spaces for this, with a pair of wooden counters at different heights, as well as stools and lower seating.

As far as stores go, this was a pretty good one. Sure, it’s not as fancy as Apple Champs-Elysees in Paris, nor the museum-like Apple Via Del Corso in Rome, but it was still quite a step up from the other mall-style outlets I’ve ever run into.

A long-time hint to the future

I wish more Apple Stores took this warmer approach. If a story from last week is right, we may well see something similar.

Last weekend, Apple’s store refurbishment plans were said to concentrate on renovations more than opening up new locations around the world. This included a revamp of the Avenue, the removal of the video wall idea, and changes to the Genius Bar.

Those changes would involve replacing them with all-wood elements, consisting of two counter heights. Behind would be storage drawers and large product posters.

The alcove where you play with the Apple Vision Pro at Apple Battersea.

At the time, it dawned on us that the description matched an existing store that we had also saw. The reopening of the Tysons Corner store in 2023 showed this style of bar and other changes outlined in that report.

These same changes are also evident in the Battersea Power Station store. And again, that was opened in 2023 too.

The refurbishment report added that Apple had tested new layouts in a number of stores internationally. It makes sense for the “local” store to the UK HQ to be among that list.

This is hopefully a good sign to store-goers on what they may see their nearby Apple Store turning into in the coming years.

I really hope that this happens in the UK soon. I don’t fancy another six-hour train ride to experience this again anytime soon.

Last week’s Sunday Reboot discussed the Apple Event and the first Ternus presentation.

When you think of wartime cryptography, you probably think of World War II and Enigma, although there were other famous codes used during that war. But in fact, there have been codes used through wars and in peacetime for much longer. Even the Romans used codes. Of course, World War I, or The Great War, as it would have been known, had its share of codes and, as you might expect, most of these have been broken long ago. Most of them. But apparently an AI model, GPT-6 Astra, recently cracked one that was previously undeciphered.

If you aren’t up on century-old cryptography, the ADFGVX cipher appeared in 1918. It began as ADFGX, but after a few months grew an extra letter — and a larger grid. The letters were chosen because their Morse-code patterns were relatively easy to distinguish: A, D, F, G, V, and X.

The original ADFGX version used a 5×5 grid containing the alphabet, usually merging I and J. The later ADFGVX version expanded this to 6×6, making room for all the letters and the digits as well.

Encoding required a 5×5 (or 6×6) grid with the alphabet within. The table’s rows and columns were labeled… you guessed it… ADFGX pr ADFGVX. Each plaintext letter gets replaced by the corresponding row and column such as AF or XG. Finally, the letter pairs would be written under a transposition key.

Concatenating those pairs gives AGXGDDDXXF. Written in five columns under CANDY, the first row is AGXGD and the second is DDXXF.

Next, you sort the letters in the transposition key, taking the columns along with the letters. That would make the transposition key ACDNY, and the first row would now be GAGXD. Then the message is sent by columns. Too much to wrap your head around? Visit dCode and plug in some plain text, squares, and keywords for yourself.

The French broke the code in 1918, but without computers it was tough work. Codebreaker [Georges Painvin] reportedly worked on the cipher until it made him ill, but he did solve it. However, some of the intercepted messages remained a mystery. One in particular was sent on November 27, 1918. Apparently, the message used the codeword TRUPPENVERSCHIEBUNG, a German key believed to have gone into service in December. If this decoding is correct, then this message used it even earlier.

The message was, of course, in German and appears to be a report about a British ship’s movements near Sevastopol. In fact, HMS Canterbury’s position on the dates mentioned matches the message.

Honestly, we were more impressed that people like [Georges Painvin] in 1918 were able to decode these intercepted messages. But it is still an interesting glimpse into the capabilities of Astra.

It seems that as long as there has been writing, there have been ways to send secret messages. The Swiss in The Great War had their own encryption method.

The desktop headphone market is starting to look a lot like the rest of high-end audio: fewer boxes, fewer cables, and more functionality packed into a single component. Instead of assembling separate DACs and headphone amplifiers, listeners can increasingly choose one-box solutions designed to handle digital conversion, amplification, source switching, and even preamplifier duties without surrendering performance.

That is precisely the problem the Sendy Audio KYLIN is trying to solve. At $1,499/£1,499, however, simply combining a DAC and headphone amplifier in one handsome chassis is no longer enough. This has become a fiercely competitive category, and buyers spending this much should expect excellent sound, enough power for demanding headphones, useful connectivity, low noise, strong build quality, and the ability to genuinely replace multiple components on the desktop.

Sendy Audio has been one of my favourite headphone manufacturers in recent years. The Aiva 2 impressed me with its craftsmanship and engaging presentation, while the Egret has been one of my favourite planar magnetic headphones of the year so far.

I first listened to the KYLIN at CanJam London and enjoyed it enough that I wanted to spend considerably more time with one away from the noise and chaos of an audio show. Having now lived with it, that initial attraction is still very much there.

But at $1,499/£1,499, excellent sound is only the price of admission. The more important question is whether the Sendy Audio KYLIN does enough to justify replacing a stack of very capable DACs and headphone amplifiers already competing for the same space on your desk.

Related Reading:

Inside the Sendy Audio KYLIN: DAC, Class A Amplification and Connectivity

The KYLIN represents Sendy Audio’s move beyond headphones and into desktop electronics, combining a DAC, preamplifier, and headphone amplifier inside a single, substantial aluminium chassis.

Digital conversion is handled by the familiar ESS ES9038Q2M DAC, partnered with an XMOS USB implementation. Sendy Audio specifies support for native DSD512 playback, while digital connectivity includes USB-B, coaxial, and optical inputs.

Rather than building the KYLIN around the kind of highly integrated amplifier topology that has become commonplace in modern desktop DAC/amps, Sendy has gone with a Class A output stage employing matched Hitachi transistors. Dual Burr-Brown OPA604 op-amps are used in the preamplifier section, with WIMA and Nichicon capacitors also featuring internally.

This is not really trying to compete with products from Topping, FiiO, and similar manufacturers by offering the longest feature list or the most extravagant collection of measurements. The KYLIN feels much more like an old-school headphone amplifier that happens to have a very capable DAC built into it.

Three headphone connections are provided on the front panel: 6.35mm, 4.4mm, and four-pin XLR. Around the back are USB-B, coaxial, and optical digital inputs, alongside three sets of RCA analogue inputs and RCA preamplifier/line-level connectivity.

At this price, I would have liked balanced XLR line outputs. There is certainly enough room on the rear panel, and I am not convinced that three sets of RCA analogue inputs will prove more useful to most buyers than having the option of balanced connectivity to active loudspeakers or a separate power amplifier.

Furthermore, the KYLIN provides an altogether more analogue user experience. There are no digital filters to cycle through, no parametric EQ, no large colour interface, and no labyrinth of internal settings to configure. There is not even a remote control. Depending on your perspective, that will either sound refreshingly simple or surprisingly limited.

Plenty of considerably cheaper DAC/amps now offer PEQ, extensive filter controls, Bluetooth, saved profiles, and increasingly sophisticated software ecosystems. Some all-in-one components are even beginning to dabble in AI-assisted functionality.

The KYLIN gives you knobs, switches, and two physical VU meters. I suspect Sendy Audio is perfectly happy with that distinction.

Design & Build

Inside the box, Sendy Audio supplies the KYLIN with the necessary power cable alongside an unusually generous collection of interconnects, including RCA, optical, and multiple USB cables intended to cover the most common computer and mobile-device configurations. It is one of those rare products where you can open the box and have a very good chance of finding the cable you actually need rather than immediately rummaging through a drawer or making another online purchase.

I think the unit itself is beautifully made. That should not come as an enormous surprise if you have handled Sendy Audio’s cans before. Its headphones place considerable emphasis on materials and machining, and the KYLIN takes a similar approach to desktop electronics.

At 245 x 225 x 50mm (9.6 x 8.9 x 2 inches) and roughly 3.1kg, it is not especially large, but there is enough weight to stop it from moving around the desk every time you connect a pair of headphones.

The centrepiece is unquestionably the pair of analogue VU meters. Of course, they are not exactly necessary, but they do look cool. Screens have become almost unavoidable on modern desktop audio equipment. The advantage is obvious when a product has dozens of settings, filters, and input modes, but there is something satisfying about using an amplifier that does not resemble another small computer sitting next to my PC.

The volume knob deserves particular praise because it feels excellent. There is real weight to its movement, with enough resistance that adjustments feel deliberate and precise rather than loose or vague.

Unfortunately, the KYLIN has an unusually small usable window before things get loud. Even with the HiFiMAN HE6se V2 — hardly a headphone famous for being easy to drive — I was operating within roughly the first 10% of the potentiometer’s travel for much of my normal listening. Small movements therefore create disproportionately large changes in output level.

That is irritating with demanding headphones and becomes a much bigger problem with efficient ones. Fine adjustment at lower listening levels is far more difficult than it should be.

There is also audible background noise with sufficiently sensitive headphones. I could hear a noise floor with easy to drive full size dynamic headphones such as the THIEAUDIO Cypher, and I would be very cautious about buying the KYLIN primarily for sensitive IEMs.

Unless you listen to a lot of classical music with very wide dynamic range, extended rests, or extremely quiet passages, the noise floor should not pose a significant problem in normal use. But for a $1,499 headphone amplifier, it is still something that should not really be there.

There are certainly no complaints about the thermal performance, though. Despite the Class A design, the chassis only became lukewarm to the touch during extended use. Having spent time with products such as the Aune S17 Pro and LAiV Audio Crescendo VERSE, both of which can generate considerably more heat, I was expecting the Sendy Audio to become rather toasty. It never did.

That makes the KYLIN much easier to live with on a normal desk and gives you far more freedom over placement than some other Class A designs.

Listening & Headphone Synergy

The Sendy Audio KYLIN was used primarily as an all-in-one DAC and headphone amplifier with a range of planar magnetic and dynamic driver headphones. I fed the unit a mixture of high resolution FLAC files and Spotify streams from both my PC and smartphone.

As mentioned previously, my first proper listen to the KYLIN was at CanJam London, where its combination of warmth, dynamics, and physicality immediately stood out. I can now say that those initial impressions have largely survived extended listening.

Perhaps the best thing about the KYLIN is just how dynamic it sounds. Bass has real texture and physical presence, with enough weight behind kick drums and bass guitars to give music a convincing sense of scale. Transients have plenty of impact, and the KYLIN never sounds short of energy, especially in the low end, even when connected to more demanding planar magnetic headphones.

I especially enjoyed listening to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” where the recurring bassline punched through the rest of the track and gave the song even greater impact.

There is also a subtle old school Class A warmth to its presentation. It is not thick or syrupy in the traditional sense, but there is a little additional richness through the lower registers and midrange that gives instruments more body without completely neutering treble energy.

For that reason, I think the KYLIN pairs especially well with dead neutral headphones such as the HiFiMAN HE1000 Unveiled, adding a hint of cosiness that can otherwise be missing at times. It can also help tone down particularly spicy sections of certain tracks. Hans Zimmer’s “2049” can cause listening fatigue with some systems, but I had no such issues with the KYLIN.

As alluded to previously, the unit also has no trouble driving some of the most demanding headphones currently on the market. The HE6se V2 has earned a reputation for exposing amplifiers that look powerful on paper but struggle to provide convincing control and dynamic authority in practice. Despite this, the KYLIN had plenty of headroom while retaining bass impact and definition, and large dynamic swings never collapsed or became noticeably compressed.

British rapper AJ Tracey’s “Wifey Riddim 4” delivered the level of hard hitting impact I was looking for with the KYLIN paired with the Sendy Audio Egret.

The subtle warmth continues into the midrange, where vocals and guitars possess a pleasing sense of density without obscuring detail. There is enough clarity through the upper midrange and treble to prevent the KYLIN from becoming overly romantic, and it manages to retain a sense of openness despite its richer tonal balance.

That is refreshing in a market dominated by components chasing neutrality and increasingly impressive measurements. The KYLIN still sounds similarly clean and resolving to products from Topping or SMSL, but it adds a degree of dynamic exuberance and tonal character that gives the presentation some personality.

The Bottom Line

In an era when a DAC/headphone amplifier costing under $500 can offer colour touchscreens, Bluetooth, parametric EQ, a myriad of filters, and enough menu options to keep you occupied for an entire day, the $1,499 Sendy Audio KYLIN might not initially seem like the most enticing all in one option. It has physical VU meters, conventional controls, and very little in the way of software.

But that more analogue user experience will be exactly what some listeners are looking for. It allows you to focus on the music rather than constantly fiddling with settings in an attempt to make the listening experience that little bit more convenient.

And the KYLIN simply sounds magnificent. It has acres of power, a slightly warm tonal balance that draws attention to its powerful and immaculately controlled bass performance, yet still manages to retain a high level of detail and spatial precision. That is a difficult balance to achieve. The unit is also beautifully constructed, with a reassuring heft and level of finish that make it feel every bit like a serious piece of desktop audio equipment.

Just be aware of the lack of balanced XLR line outputs and the fact that the KYLIN is not the best companion for sensitive IEMs or easy to drive dynamic headphones, owing to its audible noise floor and very narrow usable volume range.

Pros:

• Beautifully constructed chassis with excellent physical controls
• Analogue VU meters give the KYLIN real character
• Substantial power for difficult full-size headphones
• Excellent pairing with hard-to-drive planar headphones
• Dynamic, textured bass response
• Slight Class A warmth without excessive treble roll-off
• Runs surprisingly cool for a Class A desktop amplifier
• Generous selection of supplied cables

Cons:

• Very narrow usable range on the volume control
• Audible noise floor with sensitive headphones
• No balanced XLR line outputs or remote control
• No PEQ, digital-filter selection or extensive internal configuration

Our Ratings:

★★★★★★★★★★ Sound Quality

★★★★★★★★★★ Build Quality

★★★★★★★★★★ Usability

★★★★★★★★★★ Features

★★★★★★★★★★ Value

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