Faileas

I'm looking at getting a pair of fisher audio FA003s locally - treoo has had it on pre-order for the past year or so, and the other distributor - exsus didn't reply when I sent a e mail asking them if there were any retailers in the city that stocked them. So, is there anywhere I can get my hands on one of these, and roughly how much would it run me?

if they ship US only, you might consider using a service like comgateway to transship - they even handle disputes for you if the buyer dosen't send the product. Other than that, the M50s work pretty well with the nuforce udac2 - i got mine from audio iconic - it sounds fantastic and has plenty of power to spare and its pretty small, there's been some controversy over it on HF, but IMO, i can't quite tell the channel mismatch and distortion that was claimed is there. I've switched to it from the maudioboxen i was using before.

My stratergy is to take equipment i already have, and turn their utility up to 11 - we use the mbox2 for home recording, and the fastrack for portable use (with a netbook) I currently have my eyes on a nuforce udac 2 as my next bit of kit, since for my use (purely vocal recordings, no more than 2 channels a track), the mbox2 and fastrack are good enough. This should also let me compare what i have to something most people consider to be fairly good ;p. Which mbox do you have? the new ones do seem shiny and fairly well built.

yeah, the mbox 3 wasn't out at the time that i wrote this though. I suspect most of the setup related things should be identical between the two.

I'd second the M50s. I'd also like to point out most grados are open backed - these are often (not always, i suppose) less bass oriented, and tend to leak sound in or out (also, not always a good thing). Most decent headphone shops tend to let you test - I got my m50s cause the sales staff at stereo let me try it, and it was mindblowingly good - considering i wanted a sennheiser model whose name i forgot right after hearing it, its that good. Its 40 bucks more - that's what... a couple of cups of fancy coffee? ;p

Flash wouldn't be an issue, other than the rather odd criteria i have. If i'm going lossy, SQ won't be a huge criteria (in which case, the ipods are fine for most part), if i'm going lossless, i would rather the space (hell, the 80 gig minimum is cutting it rather close, since the collection i have lossy is 70ish gigs). Other than bad reviews on reliability, the cowon x9 seems plausible - 160 gb hard drive, decent reviews on SQ, and an apparent tendancy to brick itself if you load too much music at once. I do seem to think its a wee bit more expensive than the stock ipod. Another contender i'm looking at is rockboxing my problematic (bad sectors - working on a fix - currently trying a VERY time consuming reformat, though the rockbox dev for the ipod classic port hinted there's another possible solution) ipod, or running rockbox on the refurb model i'm using now, or getting another classic and running rockbox on it.

So, while i've been using an ipod classic a while, there's certain aspects of the ipod that annoy me - itunes for one. Now, while most companies *have* decided that flash is the way to go, and that HDD based players are dinosaurs... there's still a few around. I'm wondering if anyone's used any other *current* players (and a cost/mini review would be good) with a hard drive or more than 80 gigs of space, and your opinions on them.

Off the top of my head is it a sizzling sound, or a high pitched starting sound that goes lower? (the former might be bad connection. the latter some form of feedback) What's the connectors on the canare cable? - i'm assuming rca - try doing a quick continuity test with a multimeter to see if anything that shouldn't have continuity does. since both channels of the RCA cable are the same, try swapping the connectors of the cheapo RCA cable, and try touching the volume control to see if the same thing happens try a mini jack -rca connector to narrow down which side the problem is in

In case anyone else has the same issue - at this point of time, replacing the HDD on the older 'fat' ipod is IMPOSSIBLE. No one (even ifixit) has parts, and while i ended up getting a refurbished model cheapish, the old one is almost a writeoff - Its currently a guinea pig for an experimental, risky, repair plan. Now, i need to start planning for a replacement in a year or so ;p

the hardware used to interface the software with mics and other hardware - I'm currently using an m-audio fastrack (which costs roughly the same as the creative x-fi - around 200ish i think) to play my music out of - i don't have a dedicated DAC at this point, nor am i considering one for now ince they work. The setup works gloriously, and its decent enough for a starter audiophile setup. ANY breakout box for a DAW should work decently well, and be a massive improvement over built in soundcards. Most DAW software talks to the DAW hardware over ASIO, and foobar2000 has an asio plugin, so you can use that.

A decent source would do the trick - the ATH M50 is pretty damned easy to drive - though, i've had better luck with a laptop realtek than a desktop realtek for some reason. I'd suggest probably bumping up the budget, and either try to get a decent inexpensive DAC or DAW (which make good sources ;p) first.

headphones nearly always have 3.5mm or 1/4 inch inputs - most PCs have the former, and most more serious audio equipment have the latter. DACs arn't absolutely essential, unless you have a crappy soundcard. Personally, rather than getting a creative x-fi, i'd suggest spending the same amount of money and getting a low end m-audio fastrack (the dealer's in park mall) or similar digital audio workstation if you want a low cost, high quality source out of your PC. Whether your headphones need an amp - look up the specific model. There's some decent amps (Schitt comes to mind) that arn't hugely expensive, but least with my current pair of headphones, my fastrack, ipod and PC headphone out all drive it well. An amp is probably the LAST piece of gear a budding audiophile should get, IMO

I've had an ipod for a few years and the hard drive appears to have kicked the bucket. I'd like to get it replaced but, well, i'd like to do it in as cost effective manner as possible. Since its out of warrantee, anyone know any good repair places? My old standby closed down, and i'd rather places people have used before. some idea on how much replacing the drive on a 160 gb model would be appreciated too

i live a few blocks from there, so it should be easy for me. Thanks!

I'm working on building my first discrete amp, and despite my best efforts, i seem to have forgotten to order 0.47 uf caps with the rest of my order from RS. I usually get stuff from continental in SLT, but their capasitors are mostly the generic sort, so i'm wondering if there's somewhere i can get the capasitors from, since its a pain to order only *one* part, even in multiples.

you could probably contact sennheiser about the earpads. their local distributor is contactable at service.asia@sennasia.com.sg

IIRC silver solder has a higher melting point - so a 30 w soldering iron might not be hot enough

most of the interesting shops are downstairs, though LHS is tucked away in a corner of the 3rd or 4th floor. Bloody hard to find. I SERIOUSLY recommend the $1.50 metal cheapie jacks from (IIRC) continental in the basement.if you're learning to solder- they're tough, and if you muck up, they desolder well

So far, nearly all of my headphones have been the closed sort - two creatives which i forget the name of, two sennheisers (eh 150, and HD202) and my current, and very well loved ATH m50s. And well, i'm pondering getting something open, and well different from what i'm used to in one to two months or so (enough time to cool down, re arrange, and plot . The grado Sr80i looks pretty interesting - and from what i've read on forums, grados tend to sound unique, mod well, and since its under 200, i should be able to adjust my finances to get either that or a SR60. Of course, i'm curious about what other options i might have for relatively inexpensive open headphones. So, what do you guys think?

There is a reason for that after all

M Audio sells two versions of this, with roughly equal specifications for the home recording crowd. I've used an mbox2 for a while, and my dad wanted this for a portable setup. The Fastrack, or Fastrack 2 is a revised model with a few design improvements - such as moving all the outputs to the front, moving the dials for volume to the back and a few others, and the original revision is sold a little cheaper as the "Protools Recording studio". My review is primarily about the revised version, though I'll touch on the cheaper varient as i go along. While its small and plastic, it has the air of being fairly well made, though lacking the rather impressive heft of its older cousin. Inputwise, you have one XLR input, and one 1/4 inch input jack - on the original version you have a selection button to choose between guitar and line in. On the revised version, both of these and the headphone jack are in front, with RCA audio output ports, and a USB port behind - on the original, the headphone jack is the only jack in front - since this space is taken up by dials. Both of them have 3 dials, one for the guitar input, one for the mic and one for the output volume. On the new revision these are HUGE dials on top, and on the old one, rather conventional pen capish looking ones. Now the nice part - while you had to look for drivers for the mbox2, drivers are provided on a seperate cd, and the fastrack works as both a directsound device on XP, and ASIO- it also has WDM support. This means you can use this as a fairly nice external soundcard, without jumping too many hoops, or set this up as an ASIO device on foobar for more awesome EDIT: it kinda works with linux, but dosen't sound as good as foobar2k/asio on windows. I remember some mention of it working as a 'normal' usb external device and the drivers enable additional features in the other models, so maybe there's some secret sauce in the windows drivers... The specifications on the website claim that its got a 24 bit DAC - Foobar2000 believes its 32 bit for some reason. Sound quality is excellent, though i haven't ABed this with the mbox2 since it've been playing with this, and logistical issues. Softwarewise, the usual suspects - maudio protools essentials, (which i haven't installed, i got LE and it works with this) and a driver cd. This will work with any ASIO capable mixing/editing app I got my mbox2 for about 300-400 dollars. This family? The RRP for the original revision (as part of the protools recording studio) is 99USD. The newer revision i have is about 150 USD . (the local distributor only had the new revision, for about 195 SGD) It works a treat with foobar or any other ASIO device, and works like a proper sound card, which is useful especially on laptops. It also manages to power my Audiotechnica M50s with a whole load of power to spare. Sadly enough, as far as listening is concerned, i'll be retireing my mbox2 for music listening. (recordingwise, i need the extra inputs), since this fits in my tiny desk better ;p, This is the version i have and this is the older revision the guide for the mbox2 and foobar2000 will work on this, and it really sounds better than using the DS option to me- then again, this means i can use this with other apps that don't support ASIO.

while i'm not planning on getting any neat gear () my dad might be getting one of these. If the local price is right (the US MSRP is 99 US), this might actually be a pretty good budget setup similar to what i use now, at a pretty competitive price. In addition it has RCA outputs at the rear so you could plug it into an amp pretty easily i'll be calling the local distributor in a few days, and will keep it updated, if anyone is interested Maudio might have a winner here, if it actually works for playing music as opposed to making it ;p

I will eventually. It *does* work, just not with the m50s. At some point i want to try the e7. The e5 is supposed to be a 'cleaned up', version with a rechargable battery and selectable bass boost... so maybe it'll be better- but if i did get it, there's supposed to be a major revision soon, so better to wait. I half suspect they gonna upgrade the op-amp

would that be the 'digital' pins?

eh. I stopped reading digital life cause their IT stuff was rubbish... considering that, i doubt their audio reviews would be any better ;p