fishball79

Tsk tsk Guyferd, what a lame attempt to rack up more posts... But yeah there should be some cables there...

The chassis dont have the typical krell built... its almost as if the krell logo was slapped on just for authenticity... its probably a very solid feeling chassis but i'd like the typical huge heatsinks... You all must bring ur toys to 4th meet ok, cos i'll most probably be there!

Helping someone post to help sell his rega headamp. Its a current model in black, opamp based headphone amp. He has all the packaging. Selling for US$200 but he's in the States. The amp with packaging is about 3 lbs. Its got a typical rega sound so i *GUESS* its PRATTY and musical but not very transparent. Interested people can contact him at jerrod_harden@yahoo.com

Found some german's webpage who owns this. Nothing worth repeating here cept its Class A and you can plug ANOTHER pair of cans at the back too...

Ablaze, Well as you know from our last meet I'm interested to try but NOW after a talk with friend i have reservations. Its not a matter of better sound but possibly damage Lets see what Jazz say too.

Ok on the technical side of things... I asked an EE friend about this idea and it was shot down. CD Player outputs are designed to connect to pre amps circuitry. These circuitry are typically 50 to 100k ohms and the signal from cd player typically 2 to 2.83V. I thought why by adding a 10 or 100k volume pot it would give similar impedances, I wrong though. With a pot in series and to get a good volume out of the cans would need an impedance of somewhere CLOSE to the cans' impedance, 32ohms. Having the pot parallel to the cans is worse. For example, at 50k ohms, the cd player would give around 40ua. Plug in a pot and grados cans and you would typically give about 50-100 ohm impedance. This would mean the cd player's output stage will now have to give 20 to 40mA. That exceeds the output current limit of most opamps used in cd player's output buffer. In the end either you damage the opamps, dont get enough juice for the cans or hear the opamps distort. What is always needed is a buffer which matches impedances. Buffers are active circuitries (needs power) Slap a volume pot to this and you get a minimalist headphone. It is also a minimalist pre amp.

There is no doubt that computer cdroms are competent transports. But that does not mean a computer with the same cdrom will perform similarly. Well, a computer source is data passed from cdrom via the motherboard to soundcard, decoded on soundcard's onboard DA and then buffered and amplified before going out thru the stereo socket... there's alot of noise in the computer. Thankfully, that is much less ever since we can stream data digitally from the cdrom. This is converted to the analogue signal on the sound card rather than converting within cdrom before transfering noise prone analogue signal thru the whole chain of earlier described events A standalone external cdrom plugged into a dac would be very different from a pc with the same cdrom and a sound card with the same DAC.

Mackie, The initial difference is always huge. Sounds a slight bump around 5k region. This has been known to be perceived as better details, transperancy, etc etc.

Damn, am looking for something that won't disturb others in school lab... if not i'd be using my grados cans already... any other suggestion?

How much is a e2 in Singapore?

Urm, both KSC35 & 50 are sealed right?

What ablaze suggest isn't available in the market, a passive volume control directly connecting between cd player output and low impedance headphones... perhaps someone could make one and test try with various cans...

Thanks for the mod and review guys... I notice KSC-35, KSC-50 look very much alike. How do they differ in fit and sound?

Abit OT but i quite like my grado cans for gaming. Since grados bass is inherently sibeh fast i often scare myself or jump when playing games. This happens when it is very quiet in the game and suddenly i got snuck up on and the close gunfire that results is very, very dynamic... in fact this probably makes me a lousier gamer cos i need time to recover from shock then react hehehe...

How come no one has commented on this good looking isolating ear plugs? Are they far worse than Sony's EX70LP? Actually I'm interested to look for a pair of BUDGET discrete earphones for music on the go and in school labs/library, what do u guys reccomend?

Wortel, Started saving yet? I just might sell my own Teac cd player by late November...

Rameish, ok boss! Mackie, Heard that? More fishball cables coming your way!

domo...

Adhoc, Sorry mistook your thread, you meant hardwiring the new headphones cable right? Mackie, Hmmm a certain cable for certain music genre... interesting... A good thing about having connectors at the cans end is if it gets yanked at least the cable will disconnect rather than (!!!) much devastating results... Can pm me comments on the mini to mini cable i made?

My fave example of hearing things that wasn't there or im my example rather, hearing clearly what the band was talking about whereas before i thought i only heard mumbling. Perhaps this is attributed more to loudspeakers as I only got to hear em clearly after using OCOS cables for my dynaudio speakers and some room treatment. In between every track Cobain would speak with his band members. Most of it was mumblings but there was an occasional moment where you can hear what they were talking about. After the cables and treatment, BANG. Everything was crystal clear. Even now with my sr225 and a budget cd player its still not as clear than the old speaker setup.. im beginning to believe more and more about source first already...

matbon, er.. it is... thought my prev msg kind of said that... hmmm sorry ar england no powder

Adhoc, Hard wire will always beat connectors but will you solder all the cables and wires in the audio chain from headphone cable to power cord, bypassing all connectors? The sound will improve BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS if you were to remove the headphone plug, female headphone plug, 4 rca female plugs, 4 rca males, one iec and one 3 pin power plug... replace fuse with copper rod... what about the connectors in between PCBs in the amp and cd player? Actually hard wiring sounds ALOT better than PCBs... I too believe in it but doubt you, myself nor most will do it... Sad to say, connectors are neccesary evils.. Come to think of it, its a great way to stop yourself from spending more money by upgrading!!!

Well if responses from my diy cables are favourable I would like to use them on my grados... just need to tackle the lack of flexibility problem... Rameish, By the way, cotton buds could damage ears in the long run... best is to use ear wax removal solution from pharmacies... removes more wax than cotton buds can

Rameish, Nearly missed this post, have been too busy to visit SGH lately... Anyways a friend of mine will be passing you some cables I made soon. He has burned them in and will be done auditioning shortly. They are three different interconnects that all look alike save for the rca plug colour. Would like you to audition and let me know what you think of them. Then have to pass to Mackie to try. Mackie, Would like to know your comments on the cable! C h r i s

Can, no ground means no reference for a lower potential means electrons wont flow from the 2 signal conductors.