fuwen

That is the PA2V2 I mentioned in my thread. I bought it and find it has good potential. It is with Mackie now and he should be writing a review when he is done with it.

Now I see. Your ripping of CD is quite elaborate. I do not think I am able to rip the way u did. EAC does not support Mac anyway so I guess I will just live with whatever I do for the time being. Thanks for the info.

Hi! May I know your set up for comparison? Your headphone amp or unamp?

Try the Shuffle with my portable set up this afternoon. I only have time to compare based on Rossini String Sonata No. 3 3rd movement. I was trying Shuffle with Px200 and HD 25-1, without amp and with HX-3 headamp. Did also tried out the earbuds that were supplied with the Shuffle, but find the sound lack of clarity and very loose bass, IMHO not much audiophile potential, though looks nice and that's about it. Without amp Shuffle drove the PX200 pretty well. Sound stage is better with HD 25-1 but a bit not so in control vs PX200 guess because HD 25-1 is higher impedance (70 ohms). With amp things were getting better and the highs and lows were clearly more in control and the best was with HD 25-1. With the headamp and HD 25-1 but played back the original XRCD in Philips AZ6847 PCDP straight away the music was more airy and with more details. But the comparison may not be totally fair as XRCD do have effect on PCDP but i guess will not show up in WAV.

OK. Spent some time with the Shuffle today. Anyway this is the first MP3 player I ever owned. I was curious for quite a while wanting to compare WAV against CDP. Was eyeing the iPod but was not willing to spend that amount of money until Shuffle turned out at a price I am willing to try. i hooked up the Shuffle via a pair of SonicArt interconnects to my Bryston pre and poweramp. Was comparing with the $2000 A3 CDP but very quickly it is clear that Shuffle and A3 are of different class. So I became more realistic and comparing the Shuffle to a 1992 Sony D-802K PCDP, also hooked up to my Brystons. As expected the output of the Shuffle is low. The preamp volumn control is at 7 o'clock for zero volumn. With CDP my normal listening is at about 8 o'clock. The D-802K is quite powerful at 10 o'clock. The Shuffle has to turn to 2-3 o'clock. Listening to some small and large orchestra classcial pieces, some vocals. The shuffle in WAV is comparable to the D-802K, with adequate punch, highs and lows. Both the PCDP and the Shuffle obviously loose out to the A3 at the extreme ends, and bass lacks weight and details. For one of the classical vocal the Shuffle looses out to the D-802K in terms of weight at the mid range. Sound stage of the Shuffle seems OK. Anyway, frequency roll off at extreme ends and lack of details vs A3 will not be critical if the Shuffle is used on the move under noisy environment. I am quite happy with it anyway. Though I would not say the sound quality is in the high-end region, not fair to demand so I guess.

Still have not seriously listening to the Shuffle yet. I am preparing 20 WAV files to be uploaded to the Shuffle and today should have some time testing them on my speaker system. BTW quite happy with what I am getting: a 1G thumbdrive/MP3 player, installation CD, a pair of nice white ear phones with 2 pairs of ear sponge, a Lanyard (for u to hang around your neck). Also the battery info is quite good with green indicating full, orange indicating low and red very low.

Finally got mine at Causeway point 7-11. They kept inside office not displaying outside. Left 2. Saw 4 at Jurong Point today during lunch, over confident so I went back office cancelled my online order and only went back after office hour. Sold out!

I am using 29" Philips Pixel-Plus and the image resolution is really good. However it was about $1800 about a year ago. Also recently I found that Philips seems only offer CRT TV below $1000 but no Pixel-Plus and above $2500 with Pixel-Plus but either LCD or Plasmas. Not sure why they leave a gap in between... maybe no market for quality TV at the price range $1000-$2500?

Hi! Wil, I actually forgot about 7-11. But ordered already anyway so wait lah. Care to share your impression on the shuffle? For those who are thinking of getting I guess u know where to search already!

My goodness, just ordered the 1G Shuffle and estimated shipping is on 6th April (I hope is not 4th June, dun know what date format they are using)! I thought the site said 2 - 3 weeks shipping.

Oops! Happy belated birthday to you!

The label on the opamp (I think, the black rectangular thing right?) ER46AC LM4 881N

Batteries seem able to last fairly long. Was running in the amp for about 50 hours already. Just realised that I mixed the 1600mAh Ni-MH battery with the 1300mAh one after posting the photo. The amp does not come with any labels so need some time to figure out the connections.

A close up view of the circuit. I do not think very expensive components were used but for that price I think cannot complaint and anyway IMHO the sound is good. I guess the experts will be able to elaborate on the components used.

Add a photo of the overall view of the PA2V2.

I have a colleague using Xin supermacro will get him to compare. However his supermacro is down now (the power circuit knocked out after about a week) but he is very sensitive to sonic characteristics so should be able to compare from his memory. BTW supermacro is about 4 times the price.

Just listened to it in the office using DVD963SA as source. Initial impression is that it is quite powerful, transcient is fast, good enough details. I was listening to Butterfly lovers and Beethoven Piano trios. The Bass performance seems good. The Corda HA-2, in comparison, is more refine, more details and darker background. Anyway I think this amp is worth auditing, definitely not rubbish. BTW the designer Gary is a very friendly guy and the eBay transaction was very present. For about US$70 u get the amp with a AC110V transformer. There are no labels on the amp. All the amp details and operating instructions are availble in his website. Delivery is about 2-3 weeks.

Hi! Just received this small 80mmx65mmx30mm headphone amp yesterday. The designer is Gary from Canada. Some of the specifications are as follows: Amp model: PA2V2 Freq response: 5 - 40kHz 2x1000 microF output capacitors current: 200mA rms According to the designer it can drive speakers(I guess small one) and headphones from 4ohms to 320ohms. Just realised the DC external input is using a 2.5mm pin which my existing AC/DC convertor do not have. His website is headamp www.electric-avenues.com I got mine at eBay USA site at US$67. His shipping is flat rate for any part on earth for US$4. You can directly email him and order from him but somehow price not stated in his website. I read from a review stating the amp selling for US$70. I do see eBay bids exceeding US$70. The amp is designed to run on 2 RECHARABLE batteries. So once installed the batteries (2 screws to tighten) you can leave them inside the amp as u can charge the batteries as well as driving the amp with external DC source at 3V, min 200mA. So if u use alkaline batteries they will burst when connected to the DC source! The sound when I first connected everything up is horrible, but that was because I was driving a HD280pro not used for months, a cold start Philips PCDP and with the amp fresh from the envelope. After about 8 hours of running in the sound is OK already. Will post some pictures soon and maybe followed by some impressions on the amp. Most likely I will pass the amp to an expert to do a full review. Happy reading!

I got mine from CD RAMA Orchard MRT.

Funny, I checked from the Apple site. The spec said it is able to take AAC leh?!

I am not sure about the AAC format but I thought I read from the web the shuffle is spec to take WAV. Incidentally it is not able to take apple own AIFF (WAV equivalent) format.

Long story. Pple from old Nan Tah are of course Chinese educated. But generally also refer to late 70s early 80s people like me who studied Science subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) in both Chinese and English languages. We took Chinese as 1st language (CL1) and English as 2nd language (EL2). Our 'O' Level we sat locally set paper and we were allowed to answer in either Chinese or English (for those Science and Math subjects). I am actually the 2nd last batch of Chinese ed who took EL2 at 'AO' level and EL1 at 'O' level in JC. After that were all GP already. Generally Chinese ed did suffer a bit in the English speaking working environment government was promoting. Only now when China has big economic potential that things change a bit. So I can write and speak OK English but will never be able to write like Mackie or Rameish.

Just bought this book about the history of xinyao (chief editor Liang Wen Foo). $35 and come with a CD with 15 songs covering the span of the xinyao movement. As I listened can't help tear drops in the eyes as the book and the familar songs reminded me those good old days in the 70s. Many of them are my personal friends like Wen Foo and Sameul Tan. Some of them make it big while others settle down in their own way. I guess those forumners about my age and are Chinese educated (not sure this term still understood by many or not) should have been part of this xinyao history.

Looks like the stock comes pretty fast. I was thinking to wait or to order one. My intention is to encode music in WAVE format and then let it fight with the MF A3 and the SA 14 on my speaker system!

The Hung sisters (1 or 2 of them?) are quite pretty and friendly. However, from my dealing with them technically seems not as good as the brothers leh. I have no problem with the uncle so far but nothing impressive also.