radioactive28

It's the bad names that tend to stick

impressed (just learned a new word, thanks Aron)

I'd recommend canal/IEMs/closed headphones for portable. Using open headphones while commuting is a pretty fast way to blow out your hearing.

time (ah, the power of adverts)

dope

This appears to be a problem only because the amps were meant more for driving big stuff that need more juice, whereby the volume switch won't usually be found low. The imbalance can also happen if the amp is low on battery. You might want to get a Shure (variable) or UE (fixed) volume attenuator to allow you to up the amp volume.

Creative's soundchip is a bit on the bassy side. I'd bite if they did something about that.

chemistry

Apparently, the hiss is inherent to the player and will affect a lot of low-impedance 'phones, meaning it'll be glaringly obvious on anything that isolates. You can search Head-fi for more info, there're some threads dedicated to the Meizu players. With regards to amping, the M6's output rating is pretty powerful, should be way more than enough for IEMs/canalphones. (In fact, if you want to believe the numbers fully, it _should_ be able to drive the ER4S to ear-splitting volumes.)

Oh, tomorrow, my bad ^^; The E5c has been discontinued in favour of its successor, the new SE420. The few SLS shops possibly still carrying it are the those that sell mikes/mixers/outdoor-audio-type shops. 2 of these shops can be found outside the main compound of SLS (not within the aircon area) on the first floor. The 'ring' area.

At this time? If you mean the Shure e5c, they're pretty rare now. A few ulu shops in SLS _might_ still carry them, but time is against you here. If you're looking for SE530, can go down now to Stereo Electronics, Causeway Point level 4 and see if they have stock.

Actually, there are some nuts out there who let me 'share' their music while I'm on my E4c listening to my own. The announcements still register pretty loud with me, and ambient noises don't die altogether. If it's not one of those nuts you hearing, maybe you just need a better, firmer seal. (I've never quite liked the flimsy seal of the Sony-type eartips. Maybe you don't too =) Try searching for heady's eartip mod thread.

poetry

dumb

Which aspect haven't you been able to work out? Need a program on the PC? Or simply no signal from the LD player?

I believe Head-fi has had favourable reviews of the In-Ear. The only complaint was the silicon buds, which didn't quite isolate enough. nofing, look here, brief impressions.

Play it off the LD player and record real-time through your soundcard?

dough

The MP3 ID3 tags are plenty stable for Unicode, all my Chinese/Japanese tracks use Unicode. The real issue is whether your DAP supports Unicode for both tags and filenames. WMA has fairly widespread support, so it shouldn't really be an issue, but there are probably exceptions. If you want to move away from WMA/WMP, you can try EAC with LAME encoder (FLAC can also be used if you can afford the space or hear the difference).

x2 DAP per se doesn't always give poor sound. Couple a poor DAC with bad/inefficient earphones and you get dis-satisfaction. What head/earphones were you using?

Meizu could also be a real decent upgrade for your source, but I think the money is better spent on heads/earphones/IEMs for now. The UM1s were good for their price, but you were looking for an upgrade, I believe? You'd want to think about custom tips and amps after you've sufficiently 'levelled-up' the basic rig.

diapers

The KSC75 offer no isolation. The Mylar X3 is probably good as a budget choice, but that's subject to your sound preference, as are most things. You can go Stereo Electronics or Jaben Network, they'll let you try out a lot of models, from budget to high-end. As for bitrate, some find 192kbps MP3 to be transparent enough for commute, then there are those who demand 320 or lossless only. Very much depends on your ears and how much space you can afford. Personally, I go 320 for overkill because my collection is pretty small.

They're interchangeable on the Shures with the other Shure/Ety/Westone tips, so they should work.

I've been to the Bishan J8 Atlas before, and they let me try the QC3 with my own player. The salespeople at Plaza Singapore said I could go to their main showroom at Millennia Walk to try out their products. Saw the Bose IE for sale at the Ngee Ann City Gramophone earlier today.