rkivie

I don't post very much but damn that's really, really nice.

Thats a pity. Your brief but extremely helpful discourse (over at HWZ) about the various entry level IEMs was most intriguing when I was contemplating my very first earphone upgrades. The rest, as the say, is history.

You must realise that queuing up is a national pastime here in Singapore. There's always something to stand in line for: from HDB flats to singing competition auditions and warehouse sales. Oh and most recently, for barbequed pork. At least you don't have to queue up overnight to get a copy of Today. Heh.

Hygiene considerations aside, unless you do all your jogging on the treadmill, I suspect the isolation from ambient noises will pose a huge safety concern as well.

Probably irrelevant, but I'll just add on to this anyway. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends a maximum of 8 hours of exposure to noise (or music, in our case)at 85dB. Every addition of 3dB makes the noise twice as loud and cuts the recommended exposure duration by half.

SOLD. For sale is an 8 month old Bling Bling Dock from ALOaudio.com (formerly known as audiolineout.com). I'll rate its condition to be at 8/10. The two points taken off is for cosmetic reasons. It is sonically faultless. For more information, go to http://www.aloaudio.com/silver.html Do note that this item will only work with iPods and iPod Nanos. Asking price is set at $60. Please PM me if you are interested.

Does anybody know where Sound Art has shifted to? I looked up their location from their website but apparently Absolute Sound has taken over their space at the Aldelphi. And by the way, is there anyone else carrying the Stello product line from April Music? The DA100 is piquing my interest.

i still think you should wait out on the Westone 3 custom. the inclusion of both ES1 and ES2 in your shortlist suggests that you do enjoy the Westone sound signature. if you're really, really itching to spend some money, you could get the OVC-20 (or something like that) to tide you over. i had a quick listen (of the 20s) just now and they sure do live up to the hype. at a mere $50 (or so), you won't be feeling guity when the time comes to ditch them for the customs.

that is right. the only difference between the UM2 cables and those on the ES2 is the addition of the memory wire segment on the detachable ES2 cables.

it's retailing at $520 here: http://www.odysseyaudiosg.com/ not sure if thats the best deal you can have locally; i haven't been comparing prices. i'm contemplating building a home setup and was wondering if this will be a good first step.

i have an original-then-modded Hornet with my ES2. truth be told, the ES2 are very efficient, easily driven and sounds good from an iPod (4G) headphone out. in fact thats my usual portable setup cos i baby my Hornet way too much heh. using the lineout to the Hornet, the ES2 is taken to another level. you really ought to have a listen, i'm sure you will be pleased.

may i ask if a Cable/Telex charge is always incurred for an outward TT? i noticed that DBS has a min $10 charge + a Cable/Telex charge $20 and a one time sign-up fee of $20. not sure if the one time sign up fee applies to existing account holders as well, but it appears that the total fees involved isn't that cheap after all. please do correct me if i have been mistaken. there's something in the head-fi buy/sell forums that has caught me eye heh.

the reason why i thought your earpiece isn't seated like it should be was because the picture of your right ear looked something like what i had (except that mine looked worse heh) when i first tried to put them on. you see, i absolutely love the way the UM2 sounds, and when i first received my ES2 and fitted them on (not quite properly), i was horrified to hear that they were nothing like the UM2. i then PMed some of the folks over at head-fi and enquired if the ES2 is supposed to sound like the UM2 (up till that point i had only assumed they would, but better, of course). the answer was basically yes, and i was convinced that i had not fitted them on properly. so i took quite a few pictures of my ears with the ES2 stuffed in and compared them with some other pictures available at head-fi. after a bit of twisting, i was suddenly able to slide the ES2 into place and have it locked in. notice i like to use the description "locked" bcos i think that is exactly what it felt like. i think your picture looks closer to this: than to this: well in any case, if you feel that you have the correct fit then you're probably right. i'm only giving my opinion based on looking at that picture you posted.

heh there Kai, i think you may not have put on your ES2 properly. from your pictures, esp the right ear, it seems that the earpiece is sitting far too much out of the ear. i think the earpiece should be seated perfectly into the ear. when you put it on, it should feel like the earpiece gets locked into place.

braxton you wished! heh. you have to trade in a MP3 player or something. http://sg.creative.com/promos/whs_nov06/tradein.asp

i was informed that quite a few pulled the triggered when SE had the ES2 promotion last month. let's hope they can be persuaded to share some pictures of their lastest acquisitions (when they come in).

it's probably a "loose" (for the lack of a more appropriate word) connection. although these connectors/jacks are supposed to follow a certain specification, they sometimes fall out of spec and will likely cause such a problem.

i'm pretty sure what you're experiencing isn't due to the sensitivity of the earphones nor the quality of your music encoding. sounds like you have a wonky headphone jack out of your player, or perhaps a faulty connector on the UM1. try using your UM1 on another player and see if the same thing occurs. if so, then you should probably drop by SE and request for an exchange.

it's not isolation that i have problems with. isolation is great, due in large part to the open jaw impressions done by the excellent Wilson. i have sent my ES2 back due to comfort issues. the cartilage forming the external ear gets very sore after prolonged (>1 hour) usage. i had that problem since day 1 and i thought it was a just a matter of my ears getting use to it. unfortunately, the soreness persisted and i realise i need to do something about it.

i'm here to lend support heh.

i was just trying to spend my progress package lol.

i dont know about the cables. but regarding the peeling off of the artwork surface, if it was no fault of yours, i think you should contact Westone about it. send them some pictures and see what they say. perhaps they will attribute that to common wear, but it would be a most unsatisfactory answer.

yeah, except that there really isn't anything nice to put on it! thread hijack: anyone has any more ideas for the artwork?

go black cables. black and red is nice. heh.

alternatively, you can go to the Garage Sales section at Hardwarezone. there's always someone selling his paypal funds.