adhoc

hey all, i recently bought a 30gb creative nomad zen xtra. for all those who dont know what that is - it's a laptop disk drive (aka 2.5" hdd) based mp3 jukebox. i bought it with the full intent of modding it by swapping the drive inside with an 80gb drive. this i managed to do successfully. if not for the 30gb label outside, you wouldnt know that the player was not meant to have an 80gb capacity. in essence, it works perfectly with the 80gb snug inside (do take note here). what did i do with the now-spare 30gb? i intended to convert it into a portable 2.5" removable usb2.0 hdd. to this end i purchased one of those aluminium casings with a pcb that connects directly to my 2.5" drive and offers usb2.0 transfers. so i fixed everything up, and plugged it in. my system (win xp pro, all sps installed) recognised the drive (Fujitsu MHT2030AT), auto-installed drivers and told me that 'my mass storage device [is] now ready for use.' BUT i couldnt use it. simply put, the computer did not recognise ANYTHING abt the drive, other than it's name. it ALSO did NOT show up as a removable drive under 'my computer'. i can ONLY find out abt the drive's existence through system manager, and even then it CANNOT identify the drive's capacity correctly, or anything else it correctly. attempts to populate the drive info screen result in a message telling me that my drive is not formatted in a way that windows can read. i simply cannot get my computer to recognise the drive in any form OTHER than a direct IDE connection (with a handly 40 to 44 pin adaptor). and WHEN i DO connect it via IDE, i CAN do a low-level DOS format (using win98 startup disk) - fdisk, etc etc. but i've formatted the drive at least 15 times now - at times doing a normal <format C:> and at other times doing a <format C: /s> after fdisking and removing-then-recreating the primary DOS partition. each time this process would complete successfully - it would tell me that i had successfully formatted 28517mb in FAT32 in one primary DOS partition. scandisk (native DOS ver through win98 startup disk, not winxp version) would be able to completely run through and verfiy that the FAT and data areas are fine. BUT the drive would still remain unrecognisable in winxp and win98, which i tried out of desperation. i've verified that the casing+usb2.0pcb is not to blame - it works perfectly with another 20gb 2.5" hdd i have. a good friend of mine raised the point that perhaps my 30gb drive is not 'complete' in the sense that it might lack some controllers - but i'm confused - for all intents and purposes, this SHOULD be a perfectly normal drive (ie not lacking any controllers). after all didnt i replace it with a COMPLETE (ie definitely not lacking any controllers) 80gb that was meant for the mass market? and didnt my 80gb drive work PERFECTLY in the zen? and finally, in case you're wondering, i did replace the 30gb back in the zen again and it DID work PERFECTLY in the zen, so why not here?? it spins up like it has always done, and there is activity. it is NOT a dead drive. help!!

etys - classical, jazz dt880 - electronica akg501 - classical, jazz (vocal only) and that abt sums up those that i've had extensive experience with. although it should be noted that the etys are good for classical because they bring out the detail, while the 501s are good for classical because they bring out the soundstage and atmosphere of the recording. so, i guess, it can be really really difficult to classify headphones this way by any one particular fixed standard.

my gosh - we're famous!

yes they will - the 600 and 650 use the same connectors.

for dynamic range - mahler, symphony 2 by rattle/emi classics. for bass punch and impact - the fat of the land by prodigy for female vocals - the look of love by diana krall

it's pretty useless actually for a earphone to have anything below 50hz imo - at those low bass frequencies, whatever sound is inaudible, you can only feel the bass. not possible with a earphone. i think by one side longer you mean the sony-style of earphones which have one side's wires hang down a side and the other side's wires come out of the 'primary' wire right? i think an sony ex-71 would fit your bill well. ~$70 at sls.

they were recommended - the px100s/200s are senns.

Alessandro and Grado are different companies. however, alessandro USES grado drivers and parts - BUT they modify them slightly before assembling them. hence, alessandros are ALMOST 'rebadged' grados. the consensus on head-fi is that they overall (for the entire line) sound thinner and have more detail and less bass. think an etymotic-fied grado i believe. hope that helped!

heya mackie.. happy birthday man. people - this is the person who first ushered me into the world of headphones with a beyer 880.

merton, i'd like to apologise for any emotional trauma i might have caused you.

80gb is the highest capacity of 2.5" drive available to market. 2 platters, 4 heads, each platter side 20gb. quite rare in singapore too. pics wont be much use.. it doesnt LOOK the same.

ever heard of a 80gb mp3/wav jukebox? well, now you have!

i dont think it's a waste of money, really. what matters is that you'd be getting something that offers a future path for upgrading. however, i'd think that a hd600 would be pretty soft out of a soundcard's output.

i remember there being some thread on head-fi that talked abt cutting the FOAM tips so that they were slightly 'shorter' so that the filter was almost exposed. this apparently improved the bass response, made the upper end slightly softer (NOTE NOT A LOSS OF DETAIL) and overall made for a more enjoyable ety experience.

yikes. not so good to post that pic N@Z, that guy, he died later that day. i feel quite bad for him. he must've been quite down and stressed to do that.

alamak! anyway, you might want to consider a xin supermicro amp, which has a as/p convertor built in, not to mention crossfeed too.

alamak mods pls lock this thread or delete it.. have tompang scriberex's shipping instead. heh funny how things in life turn out. Mod edit:. Thread is locked as requested.

scriberex, may i draw your attention to my thread here: http://www.sgheadphones.com/index.php?showtopic=1882

i have a shure e2 for sale. pm me for details.

hi all. i will be ordering a er-4p from idealsound on ebay.com very very soon. they are etymotic research's ONLY licensed ebay seller, and their prices are unbeatable. ONLY US$220, which is about S$400 or so. compare this to hung bro's $595 list price. in addition, their er-4s/p are new stock, which means they come standard with the new braided cable, touted to reduce microphonics significantly. warranty is also confirmed by virtue of them being licensed ety resellers. does anyone want to share shipping with me? this is a shout out to all those considering etymotic products. here is a link to their store. do hurry as i will be ordering by tuesday night! http://www.stores.ebay.com/id=4721606&ssPageName=L2

what's AV?

heh heh heh.. a bit difficult now.. i work in an office now and my manager sits DIRECTLY behind me.. i bestow upon you the honour of carrying it on, blues.

yeah 19 man.. sigh. the last year of my teenage era. oh well. thanks all, really. this thread is has helped amazingly in cheering me up.. felt a bit down today actually. thanks all again.

bump bump bump!

to my untrained ears it simply sounded a bit louder. and naturally of course comfort was increased for me as my source isnt too near my listening position (short coiled cable pulled on my head) mackie's observations are in the 2nd meet's post-mortem thread i believe. he found that there was a subtle, but noticeable improvement. i believe he used the word 'smoother' to describe the sound.