adhoc

all men!

that's good to hear mackie! i was worried that i had just inadvertantly helped you waste your money.

oh cripes completely forgot to mention this!

mackie i hope you bought the 'correct' du pre album! or at least the most 'economical' one..

linked picture: click away!

hey apologies for the late reply mackie (NS in the way.. again..), but i buy almost all my classical cds from Sing Music - you might want to note though that Sing only stocks music from these labels:

Naxos

Hyperion

DGG

Sony Classical

EMI

Decca

more exotics cds from labels such as ClassicsForPleasure, or small independent labels such as ECM or Delos, are not stocked by Sing.

a bit complicated. first i use 2 adaptors to convert both 1/4 mono outputs to rca, then use a rca to 1/8 female adaptor.

that setup gets little use though - i'm usually using just the 1/4mono-to-rca and my rca cables, which are connected to my amp.

i would recommend this album:

contains 2 of the (imo) most best loved cello concertos (dvorak and schumann) and many other rare pieces - saves you a hell of a lot of money! and of course all pieces receive the insight that is unique to rostropovich. remastered to boot too.

arj, i do not own a standalone cdp - nor do i intend to. my final set of upgrades would consist of a jitter-immune dac and a better amp. then, i shall be done.

Hi Adhoc

 

You have quite a setup.

 

Just wondering. Where did you buy your 1212m and how much did it cost you? I have to same question for your interconnects - the pro-golds.

 

Finally, do you listen to mp3s or just wavs?

 

Cheers

i had mine shipped over from the states - a head-fi member named zemo managed to organise a powerbuy and i picked up one for ~$300. you can get them in singapore though in the creative stores now - i believe the price is around $330.

just to be clear, my interconnects are magwires, and i coat the connectors with progold - you can find progold at new disc village in adelphi. i find i need progold as connections get pretty dirty quick for me. ymmv though.

i listen to wavs which are compressed (lossless) to FLAC. think winzip for wavs - no loss of info, just a reduction in size.

Adhoc, care to share with us the equipment you are using. I have my SB hooked up to my Rotel 931 Mk II amp and Tannoy speakers.

hi yeti,

my apologies for this late reply - for some reason sgheadphones doesnt notify me whenever people post to threads i'm suscribed to anymore..

i use a headphones-only PC based setup. my pc comprises of an 2.53ghz p4 (non-HT), ABIT be7-RAID mobo, 512mb ram, a geforce mx440, 320gb of hdd space (2xwd 80gb + 1x160gb seagate). the psu is a 400w hec. for headphones, i use either a ms-2 or a k501. amp is a headsave classic with dual opa627s and a gain of 6. amp psu is a mascot 2083 24V linear regulated. my interconnects are magwires 'nakeds'.

on this setup, the previous soundcard was a sblive. i have since moved to a e-mu 1212m. for some peace of mind, all connection in my rig are progold-ed.

the immediate differences are: transients are better on the 1212m. highs have more 'sizzle'. there are more there also seems to be a slight hollow tone to the bass of the sblive. i can also discern more background detail on the 1212m.

fyi, i do not use oversampling. nor EQ. all files i use are flac'ed EAC 'accurate' extracted (offset corrected) wavs. i selected 24bit padded to 32bit in the foobar options to use ASIO direct output.

IMHO pc as source provide more value for money until the higher end. Of course PC sound cards can't reach as high end as hifi sources. But for most of us here, we're nowhere near that higher end.

One big pro is that most jitter can be reduced as compared to CDP because the music is read directly from the hard disk. Besides for the lower end, we have creative sound cards which are darn value for money because of obvious reasons. One good example would be Creative sb digital music.

actually the sb live series is, to put it gently, looked down upon in general both in an audio sense and in a techie sense.

imo they sound awful. period.

secondly, creative has one of the most troublesome drivers currently avail to a windows pc. and the reliability of the sb live card is suspect - i've had 2 die on me so far.

fwiw, the lawsuit doesnt really apply to any of us.

i use a PC-based setup, and convenience and value-for-money is my main reasons why.

convenience: i have all my music at my fingertips. a few clicks, a few seconds and i can listen to whatever i want to listen. try this with a lp or even cd-based setup.

value-for-money: i can also use a pc for many many many many other things asides from audio reproduction.

true, issues concerning the SQ come in, but i believe my setup can hold it's own (and even exceed) against the middle end dedicated setups that i have auditoned - this would include contenders from rotel (ra-01) and nad (521, 521i, 541, 541i). if i added a quality dac, who knows which setups i could contend with?

PreserveIt is something new to me.

 

Rameish, where to get this? Can u elaborate more on this? Does the progold damage the non-gold plated connectors or they are not effective for non-gold plated connectors?

my apologies for my former post - i confused deoxit with presrveit!

to make up, here you go fuwen - word for word straight from the caig 'tech info' brochure that came with my progold:

Recommendations: when do i use deoxit vs progold vs preserveit?

deoxit should be used on surfaces that are non-critical and have sever oxidation and corrosion on the metal surface. if you can visually see a dis-colouration of the metal - it is severe. use deeoxit to dissolve the contamination. deoxit will also lubricate and protect the surface. for reference deoxit has approx 20% cleaning action.

progold is recommended for critical applications where only slight cleaning action is necessary. for reference progold has approx 0.5% cleaning action. if the surface looks visually clean than aplying deoxit first is usually not necessary. there may be only small amounts of oxidation on the surface, and progold will be able to dissolve them. progold should be applied after deoxit when it is a plated metal surface except where noted with preserveit below. the more critical the connection/part, especially in low current applications, progold should be the final step.

preserveit is recommended for NEW metal surfaces, usually in the manufacturing process. it is also ideal where high degrees of pollution (sulfur, salts, acids, etc) are present. preserveit should be applied to a clean surface - after using deoxit or other cleaning methods. for reference preserveit has 0% cleaning action.

hope that helps.

me three, av98m.

i got my e2 from www.earplugstore.com for ~$25 less WITH shipping..

you might want to know that there is a SGD$1 charge to withdraw money from your paypal balance to a singapore-based bank account.

posb is fine. ANY bank will do, actually.

q00, if the payout renders PayPal bankrupt it sure will. fwiw though - i cant find anything else on it on the internet. something this big should be all over the place. i smell a hoax.

and here's a direct copy and paste of a pm i sent someone who i was doing a transaction with over on head-fi re: paypal. should be quite helpful:

Hi XXX,

Regarding receiving my payment via PayPal, I understand that you might be hesitant - and with good reason! The PayPal site is not exactly the easiest to digest; all that talk of fees and jargon can be very confusing!

I've decided to make things simpler for you by giving you a breakdown on how PayPal would work for you in this instance (receiving my payment).

I've numbered all the steps you need to receive a payment here.

1. You need to start an account. You need a credit/debit card to do this. ()

2. To receive payments from other PayPal users that use credit/debit cards (such as mine), you need to 'verify' your PayPal account. This will upgrade your 'unverified' account to a 'verified' account. An 'unverified' account can ONLY send money, not receive money.

3. What does this this entail? After you request a 'verify', PayPal will charge your credit/debit card USD$1.99. This will be reflected in your next credit/debit card or bank statement.

3a. What does this have to do with 'verifying' your account? Well next to the charging party listed in your statement (in this case PayPal) will be a 4-digit number; this is a unique 4-digit number that is needed to activate your upgraded account. An example of what you see in your statement of account besides the $1.99 charge would be 'PayPal 2033' or 'PayPal 4412'. You would enter this number online to immediately get your account verified.

3b. This is where it gets tricky - do you bank online (ie use Internet Banking facilities?)? If so, then you can easily check up on your 4-digit number there in your online statement of account (it should be reflected within a week - mine was). OTHERWISE, you would have to wait for your monthly printed bank statement to arrive in the MAIL. only then would you be able to check for your 4-digit number.

3c. And what happens to the USD$1.99 that PayPal charged you? It gets added to your PayPal balance - you can use this $1.99 for any future purchases you make using PayPal!

3d. FYI, PayPal 'balance' is 'virtual money' - money that you can withdraw anytime to your bank account to convert to real cash or use anytime when you make a purchase using PayPal. Kinda like a stored-value-card system.

4. After 'verifying' your account, you would then receive my money, MINUS 2.2%+30cents of the amount I sent you. This is the PayPal admin fee. AND, this applies only to transactions in US dollars - I will be using the equivalent US dollar value to pay, as the admin fees are lower that way and my money does not have to go through disadvantageous conversion rates.

4a. To sum up, say i send you $X. $X minus 2.2% minus 30cents gets added to your PayPal balance. Get it?

5. Then, you would need to add a bank account to withdraw this money from your PayPal balance. The processing and verification of your bank account details would take about 3 days.

6. To withdraw money from your PayPal balance, you will incur another processing fee. For HK, this is HKD$3.50. Then the money enters your bank account.

7. The alternative is that you keep the money in your PayPal balance and use it for a future payment via PayPal. This would save the recipient of your cash on the PayPal fees (the 2.2%+30cents).

Naturally, this seems quite an ardous route to receive cash - however, if you shop online and/or bid frequently at eBay, these steps will simply be something you will do sooner or later.

-Aaron

fwik, deoxit is simply a stronger version of progold. progold cleans a bit and protects, but deoxit's for grimier connectors that need much more cleaning.

both progold and deoxit work on both precious and non-precious metal surfaces.

thanks for all the replies guys! i guess i shall have to make a trip down to adelphi this sunday.

fwiw though, i dont intend to do any repairs with progold, nor do i have dirty connectors to clean - i just want to go the 'prevention, not cure' route here.

Hi all,

as title, am looking for something to protect all those connectors/jacks in my system. i've been considering looking for such conditioner for some time, but the last straw was when i found a old 1/8"-1/4" adaptor - it was in terrible condition! even the usual eraser/ethanol didnt work completely anymore.

Caig's Progold (to be exact i'm looking for the 7.4ml bottled liquid version) would be perfect - it has a list of satisfied customers. i'll pass over stabilant22/tweek type conditioners due to complaints about them reacting between connectors/plugs of different materials.

remember, i'm not looking for a cleaner - i'm looking for something that not only cleans, but protects. 99% ethanol doesnt exactly cut it for me anymore.

so, anyone?

anyone have any idea when the next one will be?

if one is going to happen, my vote is for a weekend, and after those mini-'powerbuy' guys get their hd650s.

congrats mackie!

btw, what happened to the pioneer?

We've got something exactly like that as well but in "Rubber Wood" finish with a brass hook. Unfortunately the quality of the fit & finish is unacceptable. Plus they charge too much for it too.

 

Isn't it ironic that you use your metal (enclosure) headphone with a wooden stand whereas mine is vice versa!

mine is stained birch, a sorta light stain, which i feel goes well with metal look headphones. dark woord + aluminium = no for me.

it also matches my other birch headphone box:

http://www.ikea.com.sg/products/product_display.asp?id=884

from ikea - forhoja wall cabinet with blackboard surface. can also be used as a box.

1/2/3/all of the partitions can be removed so that you can have a big empty box for a few headphones, or store cds on the side with a single headphone..

Great find, thanks a lot! Guess it's time I accompany my mum to Robinsons...

 

I presume it's the one at Orchard?

yep yep..