scanfiend

Farle in Funan Centre carries the full range....all the way to the D5000. They also allow auditions. Bring your source and knock yourself out.

please tell us more about the fake UM56s

Fake UM56's from other forums, and the user concerned apparently does not know? Pray tell, which forum this supposed counterfeit was posted? Inquiring minds want to know

Yeah, I saw this supposed announcement from the dealer. I would strongly advise that he checks his facts more thoroughly before posting lest he appears foolish.

hmmm. a newb question here. what does DAP and DAC stand for?

DAP= Digital Audio Player (e.g. iPods, iAudio, Creative and other assorted brands of MP3 players)

DAC= Digital-to-Analog converter (the circuitry that convert the digital stream from CD's, MP3 players, etc into analogue for playback on headphones and speakers). DAC circuitry can have significant influence on the SQ of the playback.

I have the great pleasure in purchasing ALL 3 of the interconnects. Why? Not because I have too much money, but because the 3 IC's all have distinct sound signatures, which you can use to your advantage to tweak the sound, especially if you have different headphones or amps at home.

The cables are just the right length for DAP/amp use, and the terminations looked great. And if a move that warms my heart, it's terminated in L-plugs. L plugs are the most suitable for portable use, IMHO. I know that some prefer straight plugs, but from my experience, straight plugs put a fair bit of strain on the jacks of your DAP / amps, and can cause distortion or static if you brush against them (easy to do, especially if you have them in your bag or pouch). One good accidental whack, and you've got a broken jack (and an expensive repair) L jacks put almost no strain.

I also like the wire sleeves, which can apparently change colour if you look at them from different angles - very cool

Now, on to the sound signatures - Bear in mind, that these are only my impressions...YMMV My equipment is: ZenVision:M, Govibe, UM2 with customs tips (that's my rig in the glamour shots )

1. The Viper

Just like its namesake, it's fast and transparent, and biased towards the highs. It's a "bright" cable.

2. The Mamba

Named after my favourite snake....I would've preferred a black sleeve rather than the original orange one, but hey, you can't have it all

Easily my fav IC of the 3, it is a well balanced cable which does well with all genres of music. It paired very well with the Creative ZVM and Govibe.

3. The Python

I felt that it's the bassiest of the 3. I didn't like it much with my ZVM, but it worked great with my iAudio X5L, which has well known bass roll-off from the line-out. This cable would probably work great if you listen to lots of bass-heavy music.

Thanks for reading

 

There was simply no fight between the aurvana and the UM1 (esp at the then price of $219). Even now at the lower price, there is no comparison.

 

Having reviewed a whole bunch of IEMs (I mean long term reviews, not just 30mins at Jaben), I rank the Aurvanas the worst of the lot. The microphonics by itself drove me crazy. The isolation was poor and the sound did not match its price. I honestly even preferred the sound of the E2C to the Aurvana. Too bad I will not get the chance to do an IEM shootout (too different price ranges across too few brands, making it difficult to set a fair comparison)

 

The only good thing about the aurvana is that it is drawing people to the world of IEMs. Where previously, most people were not exposed to the IEM industry and they only knew about normal earbuds. These people who now buy the aurvana because of the creative brand will find that there are better stuff out there, and they will learn about shure, ety, UE, westone...etc. Which is turn will expose more people to how good music sounds. The sad thing is that they actually wasted their money first, before spending it wisely.

 

Chris

 

PS. Oct issue has the UM2

Which goes to show how subjective this whole headphone business is.

I found the SQ of the Auvana made it poor value at $239. But it represents better value at the current price of $159-169. Sure Creative could do better, but it's not a total failure for a 1st attempt. I would argue that the lower price point should have been the retail price in the first place. That would have garnered it more attention. In addition, the overall packaging, included accessories as well as the build quality made a favourable impression.

Some guys (not many, admittedly) liked it at headfi, and it got decent reviews at some mainstream sites & magazines. I myself found the isolation to be excellent. Regarding microphonics, I have experienced it with virtually every IEM I have tried, with the exeption of the UM1/UM2. The thicker wires did accentuate the microphonics somewhat, but l felt that it's no worse than the other IEM's I have tried. If it really bothered you that much, just clip the wire to the front of your shirt or something It's not the most comfortable IEM for me (after the UM2, I doubt any other IEM will be ), but it's not the worst either. The honours of the most uncomfortable IEM goes to the AT CK5

Despite the higher impedance rating of 42 ohm, (kind of a weird rating) I found the Auvana to be almost as sensitive as my UM2, with the same volume settings producing equivalent loudness. And as I've noted in another thread, SQ improved considerably with amping.

I have owned the (much reviled) Koss Plugs, Creative EP630, Senn CX300, AT CK5/CK7 & Panasonic HJE50 & the UM1/UM2 (customs). If anything, I found the SQ of the Panasonic HJE50 to be even worse than that of the Auvana, but since it's about 4 times cheaper, I'll cut it some slack

ermm....I'm having problems understanding the subject matter. What does "Unfounded by headfi" mean?

Orpheus... soundstage definitely very wide! Vocals very smooth, very engaging.... If only i have 20k......

I believe the currency should be stated as USD

It was retailing at about USD15,000 before production stopped. Obviously, due to the rarity (only 300 units were ever built), the price would scale up accordingly. A mint condition Orpheus could probably comfortably fetch SGD40,000++

I believe the price rose a lot after it stopped production. I think don't the cost of the materials though, as for all audio products, should be really high, at most 1-2K.

And since when the final price of high-end audio products are determined by the cost of its component parts anyway? The manufacturers charge as high as the market can bear.

http://generationmp3.com/index.php/2006/10...re-baladeur-mp3

 

Actually if you look at the above link, it seems that the X-mod was connected to the DAP. But i might be wrong.

You might be right. From the photos in the link above, it does look as if it has a line-in jack beside the USB port, and also a line-out beside the headphone jack. Theoretically, you should be able to hook up a DAP

It looks like a USB DAC with a digital signal processor (DSP).

Makes your music better than studio quality? Heh, how can anything be better than the original studio recording? Marketing hyperbole aside, it sounds like an interesting product.

Since you're basically getting the ear molds done at one place, and then planning on utilising 1 of the shops here to send the molds out to the US....I forsee the following problems:

1. Why should the shop concerned (Jaben or Stereo Electronics) want to trouble themselves? What's in it for them? I believe in the US, you may go to any certified ear specialist to get your molds and then send it in to Westone yourselves, essentially cutting out the middleman altogether. If you guys are really hard up to save on the service costs of casting the molds - Psst...I'll let you guys in on a secret....if you ask real nice, you may get a very good discount on the service charge from Jaben

2. And who is going to be responsible for after sales service? I guarantee you that there will be some fitting problems when the customs arrive. Would the ear specialist redo the molds for free? The question is moot if you're getting the whole service from one shop. I believe fongalv had his molds redone FOC by Jaben and Westone when it did not fit properly.

And although I'm no certified audiologist, from what I've observed, making the ear impressions is not exactly rocket science...so going to a certified professional may just give you peace of mind, if nothing else

talk about crappy earbuds...

i was in school yesterday and my friends were asking wats those earphones

thats sticking out of my ears.

 

told them is UE SF5Pro... huh? was thier 1st remark.

nex ask me how much... i said >$400. they were like "you crazy! can buy ipod already"

i ask them to take a listen... guess wat thier reply was?

"same wat... nicer sound meh... the earphones provided by ipod is better than ur $400 earphone loh!"

i nearly commit suicide...

Ignorance is bliss.....at least they don't have to suffer from upgrade fever.....until Apple releases another "must have" iPod design (same insides, prettier case)

It saddens me when I read this, and it saddens me even more when it involves a fellow forumer. Aren't we all part of a helpful, friendly community?

Qsilver was under no obligation to agree to a "long term loan" for such a relatively inexpensive item. I think it was extremely nice of him to even agree to this. You abused his trust by not returning the item when he wanted it back - and you apparently topped it all by making flippant excuses.

I certainly hope that it was naive cluelessness or an amazing lack of social skills and basic courtesy that made you do what you did. A good reputation is one of the best assets a person could have, and you would be extremely foolish to squander it on such a small matter.

Even worse, it only takes a few of such incidents to "spoil the market", so to speak, and that would be unfortunate.

we need more volunteers for the Grammar Police!

No, it's not simply a matter of grammatical errors, per se. I make stupid grammatical mistakes too

It's more a matter of this form of "SMS-speak" that permeates the various Singapore forums that irritates me no end. Deliberate spelling errors & slipshod sentence construction make reading such posts tedious and headache inducing

It's one thing to use such shortcuts to SMS your friend, but to bring it into a written forum? A gentle suggestion to use complete, coherent sentences please!

To those who don't understand the above post, it's as followed:

 

"My friend got a pair too, he taped it and continued using it.....

erm...I think it's the right side too."

Thanks for the translation, Mackie.

Heh, I sure hope that his written work at school (or at work) is more comprehensible and coherent

here is my lousy description.. (gimme some lectures on explaining if any pros r free)

the HE90 is thin sounding (relaxing, nt as forwarding as the akg k1000)

Thin sounding?! Exactly what music have you been playing through the Orpheus? Or did you mix it up for the HE60 Baby Orpheus?

You bought it??

nakedtoes, surely you jest! A mere mortal like me buy this?!

No, I was given the priviledge of auditioning the Orpheus by a good friend of mine

My friends, rejoice with me, for I have just returned from Audio Nirvana. I have tasted the sweet, sweet nectar of the audio gods, and I am forever changed. Truly, once you have partaken the pinnacle of audio headphone engineering, no other, and I do mean no other headphone can ever compare (yet )

The sheer lushness, the musicality, the effortless presentation and soundstage! The title of "King of Headphones" is truly deserved.

Sorry, I am not one of words, so words do fail me in this case. However, you can look at the pictures

The Headset

The Tubes

Marvel The Workmanship

The Beast Is Big & Heavy!!

The Wood Trim Gives It An Air Of Classic Elegance

Truly A Work Of Art & Beauty - I could Just stare into those hypnotic glowing tubes for hours!

All Hail The King!

T shirts? Bring it on, baby!

1. Roasty x1 M

2. joi-ful x1 M/L

3. That dude x1 XXL (really...)

4. Proton x1 (M, what colours are available?)

5. dle4e_2005 x1 S/M

6. ahdui x1 L/XL

7. zonalblitz_audio x2 (for now) L

8. kehyi x1 M/L

9. Theatre Of Dreams x1 M/L (depends on how big heez)

10. Zephyron X 1 (Size L)

11. yotiao x1 S; x1 M

12. heady x1 XXL (ok, that_dude, join u)

13. Qsilver x1 S

14. clemo x1 M/L

15. Username x1 S/M

16. afbug X 1 L (Black if possible)

17. Ballack x 1 L

18. Scanfiend x2 (L or XL, depending on the size)

Total: 21

I am begining to think you are correct.

Actually, you are right...it says right here at the Red Wine ipod site http://www.redwineaudio.com/iMod.html that they take the analog signal directly at the analog output of the DA chips. Wonder if it is possible to do the same on the Zen?

No way to tell for sure, unless some electronic whiz breaks apart the ZVM and take a look at the PCB Since my ZVM's warranty is ending soon, I do not mind volunteering my ZVM for experimentation (provided the experimenter demonstrate some level of competency in electronic engineering or such )

Never underestimate the quality of sound a true line-out signal can offer you. (sorry for sounding like a broken record). Like what I've mentioned in several threads, I connected the Govibe (a very competent portable amp) to my ancient PCDP, a Sony via optical/line-out, and the sounds coming into my AKG K601 is very, very, very good indeed With the audio-out type implementation of many DAP's, it takes some experimentation to get good sound if you want to use a portable amp, probably due to the difficulty of matching impedances.

Hmm, sounds right, if I may extrapolate from regular hifi, you want the DAP to do the voltage amplification (like a preamp), but want to bypass the headphone poweramp. Logical. But isn't EQ and volume control typically applied to the voltage gain preamp?

 

Can we totally eliminate the preamp stage within the DAP?

 

For the purist, a true line out would be one where the line out is tapped directly from the outputs of the DA chips. Does this kind of player exist? In a typical hifi CD player, is this how it is implemented? Or is there a voltage gain stage within the CD player?

 

Without opening up the DAP (and even if one opens it up), how to tell if the socket marked line out is true line out, or what?

 

In my 30G Zen Vision (not the V, but the larger player with 640x480 screen), there is a video line out socket, for plugging the device to a TV's line in. I know the socket is meant for L+R+video, but plugging in a regular 1/8" plug will allow connection to just the audio part. If I plug my headphones in, there is no volume control or EQ, and the sound I get is about max of the volume via the headphone socket. Also, this may be psycological, but I think I hear more instrument separation via the line out. So is the Zen Vision's line out a true one or fake?

 

My understanding of the Red Wine mods on the ipod, is that they tap the analog outputs directly from the DAC...anyone can verify? If this is true, it will explain why this is probably the best sound possible from a DAP, especially in lossless mode.

Nicely put, pchong. I do not think that any consumer DAP's today have a true line-out. They all implement some kind of "audio out" rather than a true line-out signal. They merely blast out the audio and disable the volume adjustment on the DAP, forcing you to adjust the volume via the connected amp, or powered speakers.

Strictly speaking, a true line-out is an un-amped signal, bypassing any amplification ciruitry that may induce distortion. The fact that you can hear very loud music from the Creative "AV Out" jack would imply some kind of amplification has taken place.

Now, whether this signal is any "cleaner" than from the headphone out is a matter of conjecture. Due to the max volume, I personally found it too hard to listen to it without using some fairly inefficient phones, like the 250ohm Beyer DT990 for example - which incidentally, sounded pretty good

Regarding the Red Wine mod, if you look at their site, it involves soldering a bypass of some sort on the PCB itself, presumably directly from the DAC circuitry. A fairly major hack, if you ask me

Err, I just plugged in my headphones directly to the pocket dock and into into my Ipod 5G and the volume I'm getting out of it is actually MORE than what I get out of builtin amp :s....This means what?

Same kind of behaviour on my Zen Vision:M, and the iAudio X5L, although the X5L's "line-out" is apparently affected by EQ and/or BBE settings

Sounds more like an "audio-out" rather than a "line-out"

Pardon me, that is to say volume control will not have any impact when u connect your headphone on this line output.

 

Or simply to say it had its own circuitry & not shared.....

This is from the stickied thread:

[Wikipedia]

On the other hand, the final power amplifier stage of a typical audio device often introduces distortion. But "line out" is derived from some point before that final amplification takes place. So "line out" signals tend to be of higher quality than those from a speaker (or headphone) connector.

 

"Line in" expects the kind of signal "line out" provides. So you can typically connect the "line out" connector of one device with the "line in" of another. However, if you do this with a straight cable, and both devices are AC powered, you may run into ground - loop - hum.

 

A typical "Line in" inputs is actually a high impedance input with an impedance of around 10,000 ohms. When a "Line out" signal output, with its impedance of around 100 ohms, is connected to a high impedance "Line in" input like this one, the result is that most of the voltage (over 99%) appears across the input resistance, and almost none of the voltage is dropped across the output impedance. This is the desired effect. Since the impedances are far from matched, very little power is transferred, but the goal is not power transfer, it is voltage transfer. These are voltage signals (as opposed to current signals*) and it is the signal information that is desired, not power to drive a transducer (e.g. speaker) or (transmitting) antenna.

 

[Cnet Audio Glossary]

An audio jack on a sound card or other media device that outputs line-level (0.5- to 2-volt) analog signals. Suitable for sending signals to stereos, tape decks, and so on. By contrast, a headphone output can produce signals 10 or more times that strength.

The iPod does have one but only through the Dock Connector. You'll need a fullsize dock or a Pocketdock to use it.

Most DAP's, for want of a better word, implement some kind of "audio-out" rather than a true line-out signal from their line-out jacks. My iAudio X5L does not have a true line-out, despite what it says on the sub-pack or the dock. At least the Creative Vision:M uses the term "AV-out" rather than the ubiquitous "line-out" moniker on their dock and dongle.

If the Ipod does have a true line-out built into their hardware, I'll be impressed.

how do you know if it is a true line out or a faux one?

Hmm, stick your headphone in and see if you hear anything A true line output carries only voltage signals that are meant to be fed into an amp or preamp, it should not carry enough current to drive headphones.

But u can always burned your mp3 songs to a CD. And the good thing is u have all your nice songs in a cd.

The question is the mp3 & the CD sound, does it make a difference or can a mp3 sound better than a cd.

 

Anyway, I will try out myself.

Jeremy, I think it all boils down to the equipment you have (type of DAP, headphones used etc). Arguably, if you're still using the stock headphones that come with your DAP, you're not going to hear too much difference between 128 and 192 bit MP3's

Take myself, for example. When MP3 players were still outrageously expensive (compared to today), and come with middling storage, all my CD's were ripped to 128bit MP3's. They all sounded fine with my Senn MX400 earbuds. Now, when I listen to those same songs with my current equipment, the flaws in all the lower bit encoded MP3's became very apparent. So much so I had to re-encode them to 192 VBR

So - as your equipment becomes more revealing, and your listening becomes more refined, you'll tend to notice how bad all your old music sounds But hey, if you still can't tell the difference, all the more power to you!

Now, for MP3 to sound the equivalent of CD's, it is generally accepted that 256bit encoding is the point where most people cannot tell the difference between the resulting MP3 file and the original CD. Note that MP3 is a lossy format, so by implication, it cannot possibly sound better than the original CD. It can sound no worse, but certainly not better.

If you're using a CD to compile mp3's of all your favourite tunes, I would suggest using 320kbps encoding, which is the maximum allowable in the MP3 format.