radioactive28

You can email Ety to see how much it costs to replace the cable. The entire set has to be sent back to the States though, I think. A little inconvenient, but it's an official channel which should give you some guarantee and assurance. When you say plug, are you referring to the driver or the cable/connector?

Best to let a doctor do it, since we have no idea where the safe limit is. The eardrum can be easily punctured, I should think.

Not sure about Sennheiser, but Bose should be way above his/her budget. I'm sure Bose performs decently, but I don't think they're good value for money, since they are more about their branding than their sound.

Check this out to see what stargazer is talking about: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/08/the-secr...-cheap-earbuds/

Not going to touch the website, but I'd hazard a guess that it's either a spambot doing its thing, or the site is dealing in fakes/rejects.

Well, I'm not one for bassy 'phones, but lower impedance does not necessarily imply louder, and higher volume does not necessarily mean bad sound quality. It's all a matter of design. Besides, if you're going to be using a portable player with high-impedance large-diaphragm headphones, there's not going to be enough juice for the deep bass response. Ask your best friend for reviews

Brand-new and sealed in original packaging, cord and carrying case included. Equal attenuation of about 20dB across the entire audible frequency range. http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er20.aspx Good for loud concerts or other events where sound quality still has to be preserved. Bought a few pairs as I thought I might be using them more often, but it turned out to not be the case. Selling the spares at $20 a pair. Please PM if interested. Can meet up for collection, evenings at MRT stations along the NS line or on the west side of the EW line.

I'm not too thrilled with vPost. They were good at first, but got slower, less responsive, more expensive and also more prone to errors (from personal experience, as well as feedback from other forum). Later, they also ran into problems with shipping ear/headphones and products with lithium battery. Not sure if it's been settled though, since I haven't used them in about half a year. Just made a new purchase - Sansa Fuze, going to try shipping with Borderlinx.

Oh, that. Hmm, I hear shipping is a little on the high side, not prepared to shell out for an experiment yet. Thanks =)

Been seeing quite a few DIY cables for customs being shown in this forum, quite tempted to do my own. Where do you guys find the small 2-pin connectors on the IEM side?

Amazon ER-4P cost me USD170 + SGD35 for shipping via vPost. Not too expensive, really, if you don't mind the warranty issue.

Well, SPUG is down again -__- Never mind, they're up again. The admins were caught off-guard, apparently, but they assured us events like this only happen once every 50 years

Just a note about the IE8: get them from authorised and reputable retailers. There are fake Sennheisers floating around the market that are apparently virtually indistinguishable from the real stuff until you listen, and this is true for the IE8. The fakes were mixed into batches that even large retailers like Amazon received. Getting them from a good retailer should minimise chances of fakes and guarantee replacements, for peace of mind.

Haha, was actually refering to pmartinez527, 'cos his/her post appeared within a day of this thread at Head-Fi. The rambutan is found only around this part of Asia

They actually appeared to be coated with clear plastic, or perhaps clear enamel, which is why some people are have trouble recabling them - the presence of the coat really doesn't seem too obvious.

Are you by any chance the same person who posted on Head-Fi? One possibility, as has been suggested, is that there is an enamel coating on the wire, and you'll need a really hot flame (blue) to burn it off. Another possibility is that your solder iron is underpowered for the wire gauge on the M50. The wire could be dissipating the heat faster than your iron can supply, so it'll never be hot enough for tinning.

Possible quick, dirty solution to split cables - heat-shrink tape. Not a perfect solution like heat shrink tubing, but it should* hold up for a while. * disclaimer: haven't tried it out personally. Attempt at your own risk.

Useless EQ is just minor annoyance, in my opinion, as long as the circuitry doesn't distort the music. Can probably live without EQ, but clearly, your mileage may vary. Anyway, D2/D2+, Sansa Clip, H3x0, X5, they all have poor stereo crosstalk at regular earphone impedance levels. It's supposed to be technically bad, but if you look again, these players have some of the most widely-praised sound quality among DAPs. Clearly, technical performance and real capability do not always correlate. In fact, these players are supposed to be good candidates for amping, even though Clip and D2 do not have true line-out, a further testament to their good sound quality.

What's the story on the EQ problem? Crippling, or minor annoyance? I'm making plans for getting a new player to replace my aging H320. Current choices are between D2+ and Sansa Fuze/Clip for their expandable memory (looking at Amazon because of lower prices, although without local warranty). D2+ seems to have slight issues with its technical performance, although real-world performance seems to be excellent. These issues are also present in the Sansa Clip, iriver H3x0 and iAudio X5, but all these players are reported to be excellent.

As you pointed out, it's really a matter of taste. I don't like pop myself, but given the nature of casual events, it's meant to cater to the audience who presumably does like pop more. Special event-specific music doesn't have too much leeway though; they're normally instrumental and fast-paced to lend a sense of grandeur or excitement to the event. Faileas, thanks for the suggestion. Those are good, no doubt, but I guess one thing about using music from very well-known shows/settings is that they tend to be overused and invoke memories of the show, rather than convey the original intention of the music. Just think of the Rocky theme Anyway, to update the thread a little, I found a category of music called corporate. They're quite suitable for corporate-style events and slideshow/presentations (with titles like "Driven to Succeed" ), but I haven't found anything with the attack necessary for a grand prize presentation.

EVA! Are those the actual artworks, or did you just paint them on digitally?

Been pretty smooth for me, but then again, I only check the forum a few times a day.

Nope, but you're the first to openly say so I can never understand why gaudy, attention-seeking things are 'cool.'

First off, the background to this thread. Situation 1: Was listening to the Chesky Ultimate Demo Disc on my home stereo. Perfect showcase of the stereo's abilities, as well as the various factors that the disc highlighted. Used the same disc for listening on my ER4P, and anything that involved physical dimensionality (soundstage, depth, etc) sounded flat. Situation 2: Played some recent Japanese anime pop over the same home stereo, and I realised they're pretty flat as far as soundstage and depth are concerned. All that space available to the system, but the sound was largely bound to the centre in a single layer. When played through my earphones though, the sound did move about quite lively between L/R, so it looks as though the songs were mastered for something without much soundstage and depth. So I've read that mastering engineers have to work with good monitors, and they should mix for their intended audience/medium. Now, portable listening is very much the norm these days, with the growth of the IEM and MP3 player market. Made me wonder if studios have started taking that into account for mastering, at least for pop music.

I think vPost will charge you for redirecting the item, whether back to the sender, or to another party (your friend, another forwarding service, etc), and it seems to be very costly. I'm moving away from vPost for the US, going to try out Citibank's Borderlinx next time.