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OK. Manage to get a CD with vocal in the office. It is Puccini O mio babbina caro with Renee Fleming as the soprano. Same findings as above. I try to increase the volumn for the HD600 stock cable but my conclusion is the same. Somehow I felt that the HD650 stock cable is 'smoother', hope I used the right word.

I tried to compare the HD600 and HD650 cable. system: Philips PCDP - Corda HA-1(0 ohm output) - Sennheiser HD600 music: DECCA XRCD2 Rossini String Sonata No.1 ist movement I leave the volumn setting on the HA-1 unchange. For the string sonata I mainly look for differences in in the violins, cellos and the double bass. I would say there isn't a big difference between the 2 stock cable. The difference is quite obvious when I change the HD650 stock cable to Clou Red on my HD650 back home. For this 2 stock cables I have to spend quite a lot of effort to try to tell the difference. However, the music seems louder when using the HD650 stock cable. The highs are smoother and the whole presentation seems to be more airy and bigger with the HD650 stock cable, maybe because of the slightly higher loudness. (I keep the volumn the same for both the cables). Maybe will try some vocal tomorrow. Cheers!

Hi Charismatic, If u have read my posting before u will know that I am a person very lazy on A/B equipment. I have not tried HD650 stock cable on HD600 before, but do find the HD650 with its stock cable the highs are too smooth to my liking but luckily when I change to Clou red I get what I like and the headphone seems to open up. The HD600 is in my office now with the HD600 stock cable and I will try to test the HD600 with the HD650 stock cable sometime this week. Regards

I am now using the Clou Red for my HD600 on my HD650. Rest assured the connections of HD600 and HD650 are actually identical, although the stock cable is thicker for the HD650 probably because of them using 1/4in jack as standard as compared to previously a mini jack. The price has been mention before in this forum, I bought for $550 from Hungs brother. Price may vary depending on the quantity Hungs Brother orders and the Euro currency.

I have both the HFI-650 and the Senn HD280pro. After ran in the HFI-650 is IMHO better than the HD280pro. The 280pro lose out mainly on the highs, but has better bass. For home use 650 is better. For me I use closed headphones for listening on MRT/bus and in that aspect the HD280pro outperfroms HFI for practical issues. First the noise attenuation is much better for 280pro, the ear pads are bigger and more comfortable, and the coil headphone wire is very convenient on the move as you can varies the cable lenth as you wish whereas the un-coil type like the HFI you need to coil up the extra length.

Yes, I need some right angle minis also. email me for arrangement.

Hey sorry guys, I would very much like to join this coming meet, in fact saliva dripping already just by looking at the looooooong list of juicy stuff. But unfortunately my wife and myself are looking after a 3-year old and a 1.5-year old kid by ourselves and my poor wife is struggling with that 2 'things' during the weekday so weekend I have to help up before she becomes Ãunty' very soon. Or else I can bring them to the meet but I guess those stuff will not sustain their interest for the whole day. Hope you guys have a nice day and I am very sure it will be the best sghp meet! BTW if you guys happen to be 'very free' one of the weekends and feel that Woodlands is not that far for you you guys can always pop in my house for a drink and some music, and some K1000. Cheers! Rameish, must thank you really for the HA-2. It is kind of troublesome actually to get from Meier, shipment, tele-transfer, etc etc ....... but I would say Dr Jan is really a friendly and nice guy.

Ya Mackie I used to frequent Beethoven many many years back ( I am 39 now) and I even visited them when they are located at a shop house along Orchard road. After that they shifted to Centre point and there was a change in owner once, if I can remember correctly. And you are right: hard to imagine a shop now in Singapore selling only classical CDs and nothing else! Sad to see them go..........

To cut the long story short, I have few sleepness nights and some busy afternoons and finally I come to realise that Corda HA-2 can actually drive the K1000! The volumn setting is almost at 80% using the tape out of my preamp as the input to the HA-2. In fact I have talk to N@Z and Jan Meier regarding this matter. It is definitely good for me as I do not need to get another amp/preamp just to drive the K1000. And for my taste of music I do not really need a RKV to tame down the K1000. Nevertheless I do feel that using K1000 for vocal is not convincing, though I am more than happy to use it with classical music. To me the HA-2 has enough power to drive the K1000. I tried using my 300W poweramp to drive it directly and the major difference I can hear is the improvement in bass slam. Dr Jan also agree that HA-2 is powerful enough to drive the K1000 when I fed back this to him. Sonic performance my feeling is more or less the same as what N@Z has posted. Overall K1000 has this 'sharpness' or 'harshness' that after listen to it a few days when I turn back to Senn HD650 it sounds like frequency roll-off throughout the whole frequency spectrum that I thought something wrong with the set I got! I am now using a DIY 4-pin XLR to TRS cable for the K1000 using Sonicart speaker cable. Slight improvement from the stock cable. I also DIY a 4-pin XLR to spades when I try to test the K1000 with my power amp. The original AKG cable adaptor I have soldered TRS jack. In fact when I first tested the K1000 in the office it can be driven satisfactory by my portable amp HX-3 and the PCDP, but both components volumn is almost to the max already.

Sembawang music centres are not up the the standard nowadays. To me most of the outlets only stock popular stuff. Their audiophile selections and classcial selections very limited (maybe I have more at home than them) and price not competitive.

Thanks adhoc! I have actually purchase quite often from Sing and did place several orders with Doris. Nice owner and she even SMS me on new arrivals! Agree with you it is a very nice shop that any classical fans should not miss out! Cheers!

Hi! Mackie, hope to hear from you soon on your opinions on the new Beyers, maybe with reference to the DT880.

I guess cotton buds and blower will be OK for your EMC but how to go about it for the A3?

Yes, it is the Sing at Raffles City. Their strong point is on the label Deutsche Grammophon, good stock of CDs at very good price. Tower, HMV and Borders have much more selection but price are steeper and I totally agree that the price at HMV is ridiculous! For the audiophile CDs or DVDs I can get them cheaper from Towerrecords.com from US ship to door step (normal shippment)! However, for classical SACDs I think they are cheaper at New Disc Village and Grammophone, or towerrecords.com. Sad to say the classical stores are smaller and smaller nowdays, Tower@Suntec and Borders classical section is shrinking. HMV still OK but not the price!!

The mini cable made by Fishball79 that I am testing (left 1st and 2nd) and the Kimber mini (right)

Side of the HX-3 for the outputs.

input side of HX-3

I notice there is/are few models of the Shure products that look like Sound Devices, but I do not remember seeing an amp, but do remember is the mixer that looks alike( or identical except the brand!) What I believe is Shure get Sound Devices to make for them and put on a Shure label. Or there are some collaboration between them. Anyway Sound Devices are cheaper than Shure, I believed.

Hi! Requested by N@Z writing something about my portable headamp and the mini-mini cables that I am using. My headamp Sound Devices HX-3 is made by a US company founded 1998 (very young) www.sounddevices.com targeting for film making, outdoor recording types of market. So not much heard of in the consumer and audiophile circles. HX-3 is the only headamp they made (the rest are all field mixer types of products), runs on 2 AA batteries, with 3 headphone jacks (each with own volumn control), TRS and balance input, stereo/mono switch, cripping indicator for all outputs and a power indicator which is green with good batteries and red with weak battries. The latest Headroom Airhead incorporates the cripping indicator and the weak battery indicator, not sure whether they get the idea from sound devices. HX-3 is definitely rugged, not that light in terms of weight. Sonic wise being a pro-audio product I felt that it is neutral, flat response, full of details. I am very happy with its sonic characteristics. However, being a musician in a amateur Chinese Orchestra for almost 10 over years, I am more used to sound that are 'real', and are normally harsh and with plenty of imperfections so my music taste is quite different from people. So IMHO for those who like tube sound do not touch this amp. The mini-mini I used was a Kimber bought from Headroom. However I do not find it value for money, as I have stated in one of the thread here. The build quality is good though but the sound is not as exciting. Recently managed to get Fishball79 to make a copper mini-mini and a silver mini-mini for me. And I like the sound of the silver mini so much more than the Kimber! I have not try out the copper one yet. Somehow I prefer silver cables. HX-3 is not that convenient for normal protable use as the input and output jacks are located at the side of the amp. So Fishball79 mini-mini with right angle minis solves this problem for me. I guess the side mounting jacks work fine with outdoor filming crews.

Hi! N@Z, the weekend bag is just a normal S$20 outing bag I bought when I was roaming aroung in my Woodlands neighbourhood shops. The brand is 'Numanni', I suppose is made in HK. I spend most of my time enjoying music from my systems and much less trying to do critical listening to figure out the detailed sonic characteristics of the system. Also I do not have a critical ears and always find A/B equipment very frustrating, especially those in the same performance class. Anyway, will try to write something for the HX-3 and the Kimber mini-mini. At present I am trying out a silver mini-mini made by Fishball79, quite happy with that actually.

Hi! My setup Home SA14/A3-BP25 headphone out /Corda HA-2-AKG K1000/Senn HD 650-ClouRed http://www.fuwen.net/index.php?option=com_...id=24&Itemid=63 Portable Philips AZ6847 - Sound Devices HX-3 - Senn HD25-1 http://www.fuwen.net/index.php?option=com_...id=18&Itemid=57

Good for classical music. If you like stong bass then may not be your cup of tea.

When I order from him last week he told me he has 4 sets left. Suggest you PM him to reserve 1 pair. AT $160 I think it is a very good price.

I listened for 2 days my HFI 650 on my train ride to work and back home. Felt that the isolation not as good as my HD280pro. Sound wise at present my well run in HD280 sounds a bit better, but I think they are in the same performance class, and clearly at least a class below HD600/DT880. Quite well made though. But I felt that coil headphone cable is more handy on the train when I want to leave my bag on the train floor. Definitely the HFI 650 need burning in as when listen new the highs are really harsh.

Hi! YGPM.