lekguan

The CD-R media is also very important. MAM-A golds were used in the article. I don't think its available in SG, and ordering from overseas is pretty trouble. Also pretty expensive for the MAM-A gold. Otherwise a good try is the Melody Black Diamond, as recommended by a white paper from Genesis loudspeakers website, after trying many media. I've personally tried some black CDs from SMARTBUY. And it was no competition to the Melody Black Diamond. I also like the old Mitsubishi Blue Platinum Metal Azo blue dye CD which I found not as warm as the Melody Black Diamond. But its quite hard to find nowadays. They seem to prefer to use the Super Azo or Super Azo HG dyes nowadays.

This is so much better written.

No point having so many meets so close together if everyone is not willing to lug his cd player/gigantic home amp down for people to play.

Yes. I recharge with GP mouse charger. One charge can last quite long, at the very least, 5 hours. Not too sure how much more than that because I usually just use it at home for testing purposes. Very under-utilized. Sorry don't know why these few days server always down. If you want pics PM me your email address

I somehow find full sized cans are more transparent than IEMs. As for the black CDs, try the Melody Black Diamond, which can be found in SLS, at ATF Multimedia, about $40 for 100 pieces.

Made a pair of double run 89259 (core only). I've read quite many instances of people using lousy plug, then complaining that it sounds bad. After changing plug sound improve a lot. Jon Risch said that plug is important. The plug I used was Neutrik ProFi ($22/pair). The sound is warm, highs and lows a a bit rolled off, midbass a bit bloated. Midrange is laidback, giving a feeling of wide stage, but not so focused. The upper nasal range seems a wee bit boosted. It is said that the double run of twisted core gives slightly better details, highs and lows extension. Pretty nice cable, but quite a bit coloured, and does not go well with very laidback systems. Not very transparent though. VERY bad idea as I/C if you already are using cross-connected 89259 speaker cable (I did that, sounds very 89259-coloured...) If anything else, I made a pair of Belden 89207 (pseudo balance connection with floating shield, shield connected only to source side) with Neutrik Pro-Fi with better results. Its more transparent than 89259 but quite a fair bit. Its more balanced accross the whole range, rather neutral I would say, except it sounds a weeeeee bit dark, and a little lacking in airiness. The midrange sounds better than 89259, more body, because its not laidback. The low end seems to be opposite of 89259, the midbass seems missing, and the low bass, a bit bloated. If anything, it sounds a bit grainy in the highs, just a minor quirk. Otherwise the true winner at this price range (0.45m pair, cable 1m $9, plugs Neutrik ProFi $44, total $53. Don't save too much on plugs, the Pro Fis are built like a tank.)

The way they write, they seem to suggest a few things: 1) (to a subtle degree) Earphones spoil your hearing more easily than headphones/speakers, even at the same SPL. 2) Throw away your iPod. 3) Jukebox manufacturers, STOP manufacturing players with powerful headphone outputs. They have failed to address many issues IMO. It's all up to the user. It's just that earphones are a cheap solution to obtain high SPLs. Imagine a $10 speaker that can reach that kind of SPL. Then they would have advised people not to listen to speakers anymore too. I mean what the heck! They should have advised people to note down their listening volume at noisy areas and check that its not too loud when in a quiet environment, or to set to a suitably loud volume before leaving a quiet environment and not adjust the volume anymore after leaving tt place. I guess that would have made more sense. Educate people what to take note of if they want to protect their hearing. Whether we want to take it or not its not up to us. They should not have made such hard and fast rules. 30 mins a day on the iPod. Hefty investment with low returns. And yeah, probably as Neub Detat mentioned earphones w.r.t. output vol. They never mentioned about input sensitivity of earphones at all. They were too general. So general that it didn't make a sound advice. Imagine someone with an insensitive earphone listening at the same 60% as someone with the sensitive earphone. The person with the insensitive earphone would want to crank it up and feel so guilty after that They should have recommended people to use earphones/headphones with isolation too But then again there are people who crank it up bad with isolating earphones in quiet environments too. There's no end to it. The responsibility lies with ourselves, afterall, to protect our own hearing.

Happy b'day!

Oops, I should have said, the most natural sounding earphone with option of non-customzied sleeving ever. Will that save me???

The e5c is wonderful. Most natural sounding earphone ever! PXC-250 also good for commuting!

YES!!!! Sometimes I hear music from the person sitting opposite me, a few seats away!! I'm thoroughly amazed.

IMO its not a problem of "amp power". The signature of the cans are by nature, bass light. In other words, if you want more bass, u need something bass heavy. If bass is what you find is lacking, then probably the RA-1 would be a good try, and if it sounds like what you want, and you can find someone who can DIY a clone for you, then.... OTOH, I have a feeling that if bass is not of utmost importance to you, they might actually pair well with tube amps (Note here I'm making guesswork based on what I've remembered on the signature of K501, which is IMO lightweight, and having a upper mids suckout, hence only take it as a suggestion for you to try out, don't take it as it is). If that's the case you may want to try China tube amps (at this price range), probably the Little Dot II, though obtaining one might be a bit of a hassle. Seriously though at this price range, for real value for money, you don't have many choices.

I did copy a few CDs from original before into Melody Black Diamond, burning them at 4x, and I did hear some differences. Psychological or not, I can't tell you, but.... I've heard lots of good stuff about the Melody Black Diamond then. When I copied, the difference that I heard made me feel that it was warmer sounding than the original most of the time. Too warm, in fact, as compared to what I like. So I was thinking, if it was purely psychological, then with so many preconceptions about the CD-R being good, I shouldn't have found something that I didn't like, should I? No idea, just giving my opinion here.... And yeah, I didn't do any blind test, so... Oh yes my source I used was the Marantz CD6000ose. And IMO you should try with a good source, a pair of cans instead of canalphones. To me, canalphones are detailed, but not exactly transparent. I somehow feel they are more forgiving towards the source compared to full sized cans. And try with lousy pressings, I think that way the difference will be more obvious.

bump... anyone? Beautiful MINT amp.

bump... anyone?

Sennheiser has an adapter, you can email them to ask. Seriously, why not tell him/her up the budget and get e2c?

Are you sure? My e1c has a poor connection on either side of the earphone and they are not willing to repair it for me. They say it might cost just as much as the original as the whole unit has to be replaced. And they told me that they do not have any after-warranty policy in this area currently. I was kinda So my Shure e1c becomes rubbish now...

The PXC-250 and PXC-300 from Sennheiser do have a built-in amp. IMO ANC phones are wonderful if you need to listen to music in public transport/plane (lots of low freq engine noise), and need to communicate with people. I've had experience bring e1c to school and pulling it out umpteen times when people talk to me eventually suffering from a sore ear canal. So the key here is if you need to communicate with people while having the earphones/headphones on. If not, go for IEMs. Oh yes, Sennheiser PXC-250/300 batteries do last very long. (claims 80 hours with the PXC-300). I'm on my first run with PXC-250 about 8 hours and battery still going very strong. On thing I like about this, it's less picky about source/amping compared to many phones (minus IEMs) due to the built-in amplifcation circuit integrated into the ANC circuit.

I used to have the shure e1c which i found harsh too. I've tried the etys er-4 and I found them very good, except a bit piercing too, and very much clinical. It's the kind which you should go for if you really want a "detailed feel". OTOH, I've tried the Shure e5c which i found to be the most natural sounding earphones I've ever tried. Despite being IEM it doesn't sound constrained, nor sharp/hard. It just isn't quite coloured, very natural all the way across the frequencies, and staging, sauf the slight nasal sound, which i guess is due to the rolled-off highs present amongst all IEMs.

AFAIK it's still very much on.

It seems the MXx50 series are poorer in sound quality compared to x00 series. I haven't tried them personally though. Seriously with the half price for MX400, nothing else is worth consideration in terms of value.

IMO, the L2T2S is a bit coloured (warm), which I think mighht not be suitable for grados. my 2 cents

Some reviews: http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/marantzose00_e.html "But it would be churlish not to say it loud and clear - well done, Marantz" http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/archive/perl/0_printreview.htm "Marantz's CD6000 OSE marks a genuine evolution in its CD player technology. And not before time!" http://www.audioreview.com/cat/digital-sou...63_1586crx.aspx Pairs well with tube amps. Pairs well with Klotz GY107 and similar-sounding interconnects to smoothen out the high especially when pairing with SS equipment.

I changed my mind, just name your price, as long as you provide transport.... I just want to get rid of it.

Grado has its own 4.5m extension: http://www.amusicdirect.com/products/detai...?sku=AGRAPRE-15 You can get from Music by Design from the Adelphi IIRC. Can someone confirm?