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Zephyron

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Everything posted by Zephyron

  1. Hey everyone! For those who still remember, sorry I've been inactive for so long, beenconcentrating on my studies as opposed to audio. Got myself down here in Vancouver to pursue further studies in the field of Classical Animation Hope everyone's doing great! Just read up a topic and dangnabit! Missed out on a great local headphone meet! Woulda loved to contribute what I have on me for the meet if I were still back there, even though what I have is minimalistic Well... A Season's Greeting from here in Downtown Vancouver! May you guys have a Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year! Cheers
  2. The E2 wires are barely that thin. From the time I had one, I compared its thickness to my E4. The E4 has a body cable of 3.5mm thickness and a 2.5mm thickness for the driver cables, which makes the E2 about 4-5mm in body thickness and about 3-4 mm for the driver cables. For the driver cables, the heat shrink issue would be tricky, and I don't even think its possible, but for the body to plug cable, heatshrink wrapping the wire shouldn't even be a difficult matter. Assuming that they're the same and that the cabling problem here lies on the body cable, Shure's angled connecting plug should be 5mm at its thinnest, and 1cm at its thickest where the plug bends. This means that the heatshrink tubing must be at least 0.6cm^2 for the thing to get through, taking into account of its flexibility depending on the length that needs to be put through the plug, the shorter the better if you can see how the situation goes. Taking into consideration that the Shure E2 cable is 4mm in diameter (minimum), this allows for the original neatshrink to have a 6mm radii, which gives the heatshrink an allowance of 1.1309cm^2, allowing it to easily bypass the needed obstacle area, even if its a little lengthy (e.g 2cm, though you won't even need such a length). The obstacle point of a Shure angled plug that has the entire 0.6cm^2 area occupation max can easily allow for a heatshrink tube of the said area allowance of 1.5 cm to pass through effortlessly. I'd do an animated 3D rendered scene in Maya for you if you don't understand, but I'm occupied with some character art commisions as of now, so that'll come later... If not never =P But still, from an E2, if it decides to break down (touchwood), there's no wrong in purchasing a different set of earphones. In the sub-$100 category, you can always have a look at the OVC series, from the T10, T11 and TC20. ... What? o_O
  3. Yep, you'd have to go to E&E (?). Chances are you'd have to wait, but if you're willing to wait, then why not? If its under warranty, it should be repaired/replaced for free. If you want to get new earphones rather than waiting, be sure to audition first before making a decision.
  4. Its not hard, larger heat shrinks can go over the entire driver housing easily and still shrink to the wiring tightly, such as the one I use on my Shure attentuator.
  5. I'd reccomend placing a heat shrink wrap over the tear, it should help.
  6. You can check Bluetin, Jaben or Stereo Electronics depending on where you live.
  7. 1. Up my levels in terms of drawing and computer colouring skills. >8D 2. Improve the quality of my classical animations. =) 3. Buy more music CDs! O_O
  8. LDM+ (Solid State Portable Amplifier. Internal battery included with more then 150hours service cycle) SGD 53.00 Pls. leave your nick, color of choice (black, silver & gold), gain (high or normal), contact no. E.g. clemo (black, normal gain) 98298697 1) Zephyron, Colour Black, Normal, 91795922 2) Izack, Colour Black, Normal, 96909164 3) LD2++ (Full Tube Table-Top Amplifier with Pre-Amp Function, Circuit components include high quality German WIMA capacitors and Vishay-Dale resistors and high quality ALPS-16 Potentiometer. This is the last edition to the Little Dot 2 family) SGD 200.00 Pls. leave your nick, color of choice (black & silver), gain (high or normal), contact no. 1) pignose, black, normal gain, 97433447 2) 3) LDMT (Hybrid Table-Top Amplifier with Tube Driver and OP Amp. This is the Premium Version with 4x BUF634P (2 per channel) and Vishay-Dale resistors. SGD 260.00 Pls. leave your nick, color of choice (black & silver), contact no. 1) Q00, Silver, 9618-7262 2) 3)
  9. Introduction First and foremost, apologies to Sabian for putting this review up late. I just came back from Malaysia after quite a long break from Cameron Highlands to Kuala Lumpur (paiseh n.n;) and hence this review has been sitting in my drive for ages XP Hmm, back on track, I managed to get a 4GB Black Telcast T29 unit off Sabian's hands, firmware v1.05 installed, since he wanted me to do a review for this very well placed flash memory/price ratio player. This would be my first review of a DAP of any kind though, so pardon me if its lacking in any aspect. There'll be quite a number of things I'll be leaving out as well since the only thing I had when doing the review was the player unit itself, and its protective pouch n.n; Also, apologies for the lack of pictures. I make a sorry excuse for a photographer, and won't wanna shame myself in front of the other guys who are good in photography here XP Also, I need to remind everyone that I can be quite a b*stard when I'm doing stress test procedures, be it audio or video playback... But all in all, hope you'll enjoy reading this review Specifications General characteristics * Capacity: 1GB , 2GB & 4GB flash memory *v1.05 firmware installed Audio-related specs * Claimed supports for MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, Flac. * Playlisting supported. * Multi-language Supported. ID3 tags, Filename Supported * SN Ratio: >90dB Video-related specs * Movie playback, supports AVI format (XviD) @ 16fps. Data Transfer/Management Data transfer done on the Telcast T29 is done via the standard UMS transfer methods. In layman terms, plug it in the USB port using the connecting mini-USB cable, and transfer away. File transfer speeds to the Telcast T29 s pretty respectable as well. Batch transferring around 2.2GB worth of music files took about almost 7 minutes total. According to my calculations, this means that the T29 averages out on approximately, a 5.15MB per second file upload transfer speed. Downloading is a whole lot faster though, with 5 minutes spent in transferring Sabian's original 3.2GB worth of music files in about ~ 7 mins 40 sec if I timed it right (around 6.95MB download rate). These rates are somehow much better than the claimed rates that Telcast specified at 4MB upload and 4MB download rates over at their official website apparently. Of course, this can only be a good thing IMO Navigation I have heard complaints about the Telcast T29's navi system with regard to its older firmware, but I'm unable to say anything about that since the players I had with me was a unit that was pre-installed with the v1.05 firmware. Navigation's as basic as most UMS based players go. The music folders in the T29 are arranged in the classic file/folder navigation format. One enters the file tree navi structure by holding down the 'Record' button (strange, only 2 buttons that is Record and Play, I'd prefer that they added a 3rd 'Menu' button ala. iAudio style), and navigation’s a breeze from there. Pressing left and right (or down) on the thumb-stick leaves or enters a folder respectively, and pressing up or down selects the preferred folder or music files for user selection. By pressing down the thumb-stick during the audio playback screen, the user would call up a slew of sound enhancement options, right down from customizable EQ to other custom sound enhancements, all of which are not my cup of tea, but I guess the average Joe would be happy with them. Oh, one thing I must mention is that the Navi Interface BG is very cool! It pulsates and glows/fade red in the black BG as time lapses as you navigate the player on when music plays! One thing I have a problem with about the navigation is is to access other options (e.g. Movies, pictures) or just simply exiting the music player application itself. Apparently, I don't think there's any way to do this unless the music has looped once around the entire folder, or when you navigate to the first song on the list again (be it be rewinding or fast forwarding). Screen The screen for the T29 is 220x176 in resolution spreading 2 inches across diagonally, and is capable of displaying 18-bit colour RGB. The screen for the player is pretty decent in size, but the screen resolution leaves something to be desired when playing back movies or viewing pictures IMO (Its just me I think, I'm an illustrator and 2D CG artist after all... XP). Its mostly fine for navigating menu's and such though. If I were to nitpick something else about the screen though, is the way its lit. IIRC, when viewed at a 4:3 horizontal perpendicular viewing angle, the screen colours have a white coloured tinge to them and dark spots seems slightly off pitch. I'm guessing that this has something to do with the way the screen is lit, since several handphones suffer from this problem as well. However, when viewed at a 3:4 vertical perpendicular viewing angle, it has no such problem. Audio Quality For a very well priced player, the T29 also performs rather well here. This is a link to summarize the technical playback capabilities of the player: http://www.geocities.com/zephyron_mkii/Tel...-T29-Result.htm Player 16 Ohm playback statistics: http://www.geocities.com/zephyron_mkii/Tel...16-Ohm-Load.htm Player 60 Ohm playback statistics: http://www.geocities.com/zephyron_mkii/Tel...60-Ohm-Load.htm Player high impedance playback statistics: http://www.geocities.com/zephyron_mkii/Tel...20-Ohm-Load.htm The main 'CPU' of the T29 is the Telechips 77x series, the same core processors that form the muscle bulk for the newer iAudio players from the iAudio U3, iAudio 6 and others. The codec that runs on the T29 is the Wolfson 8750 audio codec, which is a decent codec also used in the iPod line of players in the past. The player is also rated with a decent headphone jack output prowess at 40mW total output (20mW/ch), and performs with a respectable stability under low impedance loads (which stresses up the headphone jack's output considerably). The output graph remains fairly stable throughout the entire frequency spectrum, with barely signs of bass roll offs present. As to regard with the falloff on the left @ 16 Ohms, that's -1.74dB on the 40Hz scale, so don't complain, you WON'T hear it, I guarantee. Oh, and I need to mention... this player is LOUD! I'm very certain that its volume when at 20/40 is comparable to my iAudio U3 at vol 26/40 (my healthy listening of the iAudio U3 is at 20/40 with all music normalized to 89dB using ReplayGain). However, the T29 is not without its short comings. Despite its pretty powerful output, I'd say that the headphone jack is another one of those scenarios where its an obvious 'item in the chain'. Sound playback in general is kind of lacking in terms of refinement, BG hiss is obvious with my pair of Shure E4G and not even the extra added 200 Ohm resistor mod I have could help in completely getting rid of the hiss. Also, when one's ears are sharp enough, one can probably pickup that there’s a slight hence of roughness in audio playback, which I think originates from a somewhat concentrated and condensed output somewhere in the 7-8kHz region, accompanied with a slight bit of audible digital fuzz. Those were the main differences I perceive between the iAudio U3 and Telcast T29. Audio Playback. Yep, I felt the need for a dedicated section to this. I'm not sure as with regard to other firmwares, but I believe at the time it was out, v1.05 should be the most refined of all the firmwares out at the time. I'll just summarize this with the different file formats I've used. MP3: - Most CBR files 160kbps and below play just fine. - High bitrate VBR files (V0, V1, V2 and V3) and have their head and/or tail ends truncated - Player may crash (!!!) when fast forwarding through high bitrate CBR or VBR files Ogg Vorbis: - No truncation problems noted, but my Vorbis library is fairly small, so someone else might have better say on this. WMA: - Not tested, I don't have WMA files with me FLAC: - Truncation maybe as severe as up to 3 seconds on head and tail ends of the music. - Crashes the player quite easily when both fast forwarding or rewinding through FLAC files. Note: In short, I won't recommend playing FLAC playback on this player at all. WAV: - Supports up to the first 3-4 seconds 16-bit 1411kbps WAV files, irregardless to the length of the file. Note: WAV support on this thing is disastrous as far as I'm concerned, but no one in their right mind would want to have WAV files as their music playback file anyway XP Other playback notes: -No gapless support. -Single folder support per playback session ONLY. This is one flaw that seriously cripples the convenience factor of the player especially when you have your songs stored on multiple folders. Not even the 'Play All' menu in the options section helps, as everything's over once one folder is done... Video Playback Video playback on a limited capacity player isn't much to begin with on any kind of flash based DAP out there IMO, and the Telcast T29 is no exception. It supports Xvid encoded videos, and supports playback up to 16fps. While the supplied demo videos on the player are by no means bad (Ice Age and FFVII:DoC), they lack action to bring out the stress test needed for any kind of heavy action on a screen (nope, the Ice Age one isn't fast enough IMO). I uploaded some speed run videos on several Rockman ZX boss fight videos and a speed run on a stage from the GBA game Sonic Advance 3 (Sonic the Hedgehog series), both of which require a lot of camera panning and a good sense of speed to keep up. Its no surprise that the screen of the T29 couldn't keep up with the action going on without the feel of stutters taking place. Tested videos: Test 1 (animation, Namco X Capcom intro): Test 2 (gaming, Rockman Zx boss fight): Test 3 (gaming, Sonic Advance 3 Speed Run): Battery Efficiency IIRC, the claimed battery life for the T29 is about 16 hours. According to my tests at a library full of VBR MP3 files with the volume set at 20/40, the T29 managed to pull off a battery life slightly longer than that at full charge. With a library mixed with MP3, Ogg and FLAC however, the battery life shortens to about 13-14 hours, which isn't bad at all IMO. Battery charging is done by plugging the player to a USB wall-charger or by connecting it to the computers' USB port (I believe it charges when connected, unable to confirm this). Additional features FM Radio: Standard equipment that comes with most DAPs nowadays, for people who wish to tune in to the news or when they get bored of their own music. Radio reception quality is average at best, and is slightly lower in strength as compared to that of the iAudio U3. Games: The unit itself comes with Tetris and Go, but I did not test it. Portable Tetris does sound fun however o_O E-Book: Not a bad feature, but the execution was flawed at some points. When trying to open a standard notepad text document or opening up Telcast's own given text file on multiple occasions, things got somewhat screwy and garbled text accompanied parts of the Engish text. Things are even worse on the Chinese text based Telcast text file though, where multiple pages of gibberish show up without fail. Picture viewer: The picture viewer suffers from the same screen problem as the Video Playback section mentioned. Users would probably just want to view images that are laid out in the Portrait format as opposed to the landscape format here in my opinion. Synced lyrics: Not tested Recording: Not tested Dictionary: This feature came off as a surprise to me, but it is flawed by the same problem that plagues the Text and ID3/Nametag support. A lot of garbled text gets thrown in the mixture. Granted, its quite an interesting thing to include in a DAP, but they should just do away with it. Its totally unnecessary IMO. Conclusion The Telcast T29 is a very well placed price/storage Flash based MP3 player, at US$125 for 4GB I see quite a bit of potential in this player, but the first thing that Telcast needs to do with the player is to improve its extremely buggy firmware. All the rants you've seen me done above are nothing short of something lacking in the firmware. If these problems are solved: - Full MP3 format support (without jitters, truncations etc) - Full FLAC support - Full WAV support (?) - Corrected text character display Then it'd be a solid player to boot and give other players a VERY good run for their money for sure. Well, Merry X'mas to all, and hope you enjoyed this little, unprofessional review that I did
  10. *couldn't find Edit Post* Wait, correct that, it was supposed to be the T11 that I was talking about, not the T10.
  11. I heard good things about the OVC T10 before. The T10 was 'set' to 'compete' with the HJE-50 IIRC, but I've heard several people who compared them saying that they like the T10 better. The T20 seems to be something, and if priced below 50 with sound better than the T10 makes it a very good deal. Will be looking out for it
  12. Pls. leave your nick, color of choice (black, silver & gold), gain (high or normal), contact no. E.g. clemo (black, normal gain) 98298697 LDM+ SGD 53.00 1) Zephyron, Colour Tentative, Normal, 91795922 (Ordering on behalf of a friend) 2) 3) 4) 5) Pls. leave your nick, colour of choice (black & silver), gain (high or normal), contact no. LD2++ (This is the last edition to the Little Dot 2 family) SGD 200.00 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
  13. So it can be used on a headphone jack from any mp3 player -> headphone amp? -Yes I thought the headphone jack usually amplify a headphone, will it damage the amp if I connect it in this way? -The headphone jack is such that t has it leads from the player's own headphone amplifier. Don't worry, a headphone jack -> headphone amp will not damage any headphone or earphone.
  14. IIRC, the internals show no sign of a battery. It should be a home use amp, not a portable amp.
  15. Its an in-line impedance adapter that adds a 75 Ohm resistance to the cable of the ER4P, which essentially turns it into an ER4S.
  16. I second the ER4P suggestion. A simple impedance mod may let it switch between 4P and 4S modes.
  17. Problem lies in having to trade in a non-flash type DAP in order to get it for SG$29 (though I'm not sure if its strictly Creative). With an impedance adapter of 100 Ohms and above (Shure's PA235 attentuator, 556 Ohm max, costs SG$20 @ SE, just use a multimeter to set the resistance and then seal the resistor/volume slider), the Aurvana can sound excellent, and at that price ($29) probably beat ANYTHING in terms of price/performance/isolation/comfort ratio.
  18. It's best that you try them out yourself to see which one you like better.
  19. Pls. leave your nick, color of choice (black, silver & gold), gain (high or normal), contact no. E.g. clemo (black, normal gain) 98298697 LDM+ SGD 53.00 1) Pignose, Silver, Gain normal, 97433447 2) Zephyron, Black, Gain normal, 91795922 3) 4) 5) Pls. leave your nick, colour of choice (black & silver), gain (high or normal), contact no. LD2++ (This is the last edition to the Little Dot 2 family) SGD 200.00 1) nightbreed, black, normal gain, 96570853 2) Pignose, Silver, Gain normal, 97433447 3) 4) 5) Note : GST applies due to air-freight shipment. Pls. update just like the above.
  20. Looking for LM6172 op-amp. Need around 2-3 of them. Anyone carrying em', please PM me ASAP Thanks in advance!
  21. Happy Birthday neighbour And Happy Birthday to the VR Cypher XD Cypher =>
  22. I second, third.... oh whatever. I agree on the A900. Its a lovely headphone for gaming
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