Direct Interview with Artists!　What audio products do you use to create music?　Extra Edition Saori Hayami

Many people have the impression that artists are particular about their instruments, but not so much about the audio equipment they use to play them. However, there are probably a few people who think that artists are not so particular about audio equipment, which is the environment in which music is played. However, since these people have always loved music and have become professionals because of their love of music, they must in fact be very particular about their audio equipment. We will talk in detail about their choice of audio products and how they use them because they are artists.

Our guest this time is Saori Hayami, a popular voice actress who has appeared in numerous anime productions, and made her solo debut as an artist in August 2015 with "Yasashii kibou", the opening theme song for the TV anime "Akahair no Shirayuki Hime". She is also in charge of the opening theme for the second season of "Snow White with Red Hair," which will air from January 2016, and her second single "Installation/Sono Koe ga Chizu ni naru" will be released in February 2016.

Ms. Hayami usually enjoys music with her iPhone and Harman Kardon CL headphones. In his search for an even higher quality listening environment and earphones that could be used as monitors during his musical activities, he decided to create custom earphones. For his first custom earphones, Mr. Hayami chose Sony Engineering's Just ear "XJE-MH1," a pair of tailor-made earphones.

Just ear is a custom earphone developed by Mr. Tomohiro Matsuo of Sony Engineering. One of the main features of Just ear is that the sound quality is adjusted through dialogue with engineers. Just like "tailor-made" clothing, each earphone is meticulously crafted by professionals to perfectly match not only the shape of the ear, but also the individual's sound preferences.

The interview was conducted at Just ear's retail store, Tokyo Hearing Care Center Aoyama. Along with the interview, we also had the opportunity to experience Onkyo's DP-X1 portable digital audio player, which went on sale in late November. In the past, when we interviewed her for her debut CD, we had her listen to several high-resolution players, and this time she listened to the Pioneer "XDP-100R" and the Onkyo "DP-X1" again. She herself chose the DP-X1, saying, "I prefer this one. Incidentally, the DP-X1 supports DSD playback at 11.2 MHz and PCM playback at up to 384 kHz/24-bit. So, in a change from our usual coverage, we will report on Mr. Hayami's experience of making custom earphones and experiencing a high-resolution player.