Faileas

bump. We have another spammer - goodxu .

After a bit of messing around ... I'm starting to find with my 'regular' portable setup... (m50/ipod) that it seems to emphasise certain things (hi hats for one and other higher pitched percussion instrument) and de-emphasise vocals. With some music (say mechinae suprimacy) this kinda works, but for female vocals (say loreena mckennitt) its kinda meh, and sounds better unamped. With *some* tracks there's still an improvement (*grumble* specifically the ones i generally use to test, especially Valokeilojen vampyyri by indica)

Experiments will go on however, and i'll probably update in a few weeks

Are you by any chance the same person who posted on Head-Fi?

 

One possibility, as has been suggested, is that there is an enamel coating on the wire, and you'll need a really hot flame (blue) to burn it off.

 

chances are this is probably the case. The best tool for the job, IMO is a microtorch - its kind of a cigarette lighter on steroids - you just need to give it a quick passover, and have the wire glowing red hot for just a moment

amusingly enough, i set up one on its own with a cheap 20 dollar PSU i had lying around. I wonder if this'll work with a newer CD rom since many have only one button - which i suspect is the biggest issue for me with using a cd rom drive as a player. Also can you go *back* trackwise?

Well, this is pretty much my first amp (I'll upgrade at some point, but this is mainly for messing with, including a few non audio related uses), and for most part i'm using an ipod as a source with this ( my lapto sounds better than my ipod, and i use it with my mbox2 which i reviewed earlier.). Headphonewise, i'm using a audiotechnica AaTH m50 and the 'red headed stepchild' the sennheiser HD202.

I suppose a fair start to my review should probably start with why i actually wanted an amp, and the weaknesses with my equipement i sorta hoped to fix. While the m50 is a brilliant piece of kit, the ipod classic neither has the power to drive it ('normal' listening volume requires 75% of maximum volume with no external amp - compared to say 25% with the ibuds or 50% with the hd202), and while it sounds good, dosen't compare to my laptop's soundcard (which for some funny reason works better with the m50 than my desktop soundcard) or the mbox2 (which is basically my high water mark for comparison).

The HD202 is just... a lame duck on its own in my opinion. It kind of lacks *something* compared to the eh150 that i had before it- i'm convinced it seems to lack bass on its own, but that dosen't explain why it sounds so dull, and generally gets relegated to vocal recording duties

I suppose the first thing to be said about the e3 is its cheap - you can get it online for about 6.50, and its small - most of the space of the unit is taken up by a AA battery. Its a very minimal design -got no volume control or on off switch (you switch it on by plugging in the headphone jack), and a very well hidden red light for showing its on. The whole package is *tiny*- maller than a stick of gum and prolly can be shoved out of the way, or possibly left to dangle on a wire even.

I'd note in the unit i got, i don't seem to notice *any* hiss or interference so far - many people have complained about it with the e3 - Might be a 'fixed' design, or something else. This is a good thing though

With the ipod and the m50, there was a *slight* improvement - it was slightly bassier, and listenable volume was at about 50%- it was better than an unamped output at first listen, but wasn't quite as good as say, the laptop .Still, it covers the main reason i got it. I'll probably post an update in a few weeks when i've done more extensive testing

With the HD202... It was almost like the ear fairy had swapped it for my old EH150s (which i loved)- The bass boost wasn't as pronounced as it was with the m50s to me, but it sounded a lot livelier, and bassier- i don't think i prefer it to the un-amped m50s but the e3 makes them from a blah pair to one i'd consider listenable. I think the improvement was quite dramatic in this case - more so than with the m50s. Really weirdly HD202 + ipod + fiio e3 sounds better than my mbox2 with the hd202 - since the mbox2 has the best output quality of anything i have (The m50 still beats the pants off it IMO, in most configs - just to be clear.).

To sum up? Its cheap, its small and for the price, you get a reasonably soild, tiny headphone amp that weighs next to nothing, and feels quite solid, and does seem to make a difference SQwise- if you need a TINY nudge to betterness.. I'd also note, if for some wierd reason you need an amp for a small AAA powered or ipod nano system, this might work pretty well sizewise. I'll prolly update in a few weeks once i've gotten more familiar with the setup.

Not at the moment. I'm not in a situation to get any gear at the moment, but a person can always hope XD.

The mbox2 is the budget line from M-Audio - there's the micro (a USB dongle with a 1/8 inch jack, and a IEM) mini (1 set of inputs), the mbox2 (which is what i have) and the mbox2 pro.

There dosen't seem to be a built in DSP - all the processing is done on your system cpu, and streamed to the mbox. Power is via USB, and it drives headphones of up to 60 ohms according to the brochure.

At the moment nothing else to compare against, but if i get a proper DAC or Amp, i think i'll be comparing it to this

I do a fair amount of recording of indian classical music for my mom, and i use a mbox2/shure sm57 combo for it. I figured i'd mess around with it and try to get it to work as a DAC/headphone amp. I don't have any 'proper' gear to compare it with, so i'll be comparing it to the output of the soundmax HD audio sound card of my laptop. The headphones i used to test are the HD202 (which i generally *hate* and lend to my mom during recording sessions, and the audiotechnica M50, which is what i generally use

I wouldn't suggest *buying* an mbox as your primary DAC/amp but if you have one lying around, it might be a way to get some extra milage off it

Hardware:USB for power/signal in , 2 sets of input jacks - line in, Direct Input and XLR, balanced monitor outputs (2x 1/4 inch mono) SPDIF co-axial in and out, 2x midi, 1x headphone (1/4 inch)/ I ONLY used the headphone jack. If you're a bit adventurous you can use the monitor outputs for balanced headphones, or for a normal one with a small hack involving airplane adaptors and 1/4->1/8 inch adaptors at your own risk.

Setup: you will need the ASIO plugin for foobar2000 as well as the protools wave drivers - If you have pro-tools installed, tell it NOT to replace the 'newer' drivers with the one you're installing when it asks.

You will then need to go to 'preferences' and 'Output' and 'ASIO virtual devices' and add the mbox 2 device, and then select the mbox 2 as the output in 'Output'.

At this point you should be good to go

Impressions: The issue i had with the HD202 was... everything. after years with a eh150, the HD202 was inferior in every department - it was dull, lacked bass, and generally didn't sound like a pair of headphones should. Amped.. It nearly sounded as good as the old EH150s - very natural sounding bass, and generally more rich and lively.

With the M50s... incredibly natural drums, a slightly wider soundstage and in general, it was almost like being there. (as a side note, i'm finding my sources seem more important in terms of quality than format/bitrate when i A/B. I should prolly borrow my brother for double blind testing ;p)

I 'tested' (by which i meant i blew an entire weekend morning listening to music ;p)with a pretty wide range of music from nirvana to Jasmin Levy, so... there's just too much to list

Issues: uses a hell of a lot of processor power - my core 2 2gb was using upwards of 50% of its processor- i suppose its cause of of the work is offloaded to the main processor. I also have my music on a shared/remote drive, which might contribute. I had no skipping or pauses, so it was no big deal. This is also less a portable than a luggable setup - the mbox isn't OMGHUGE, but its hardly pocketable.

Conclusions - I'm not going to recommend anyone go out and buy one of these- you can probably get an acceptable DAC/amp combo for about the same price or cheaper. If you do mixing/music production, and want to get a little more milage out of your mbox2, this is worth trying. I'd suppose that since a lot of production is done on protools and similar hardware to the mbox, though bigger, this might sound closer to the original, but i've never gotten past the home recording stage yet

Wikipedia to the rescue! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_analyzer

Though, a spectrum analyser is not exactly the sorta thing most people have lying around at home. Any EE folk in your family?

I was gonna recommend stopforumspam.com - they have some plugins that automatically block spammers pretty well, but it seems IPB isn't supported

Bit of a longshot but apparently the *other* mustafa in serangoon plaza tends to have older stock than the 'main' Mustafa center/plaza stores - so it might be worth giving that place a poke.

the top spool looks a lot like the wire in some headphones - they're coated with enamel too.. Apparently the best way to get them off is with fire- microtorches are what i recommend - though, i'm not very sure how it affects the cable itself with its high heat.

hmm. is that a cd drive that's on its own? ;p

hmm, the e3 looks interesting as a 'starter'- its ~ 7 USD on dealextreme. Considering its gonna get abused a bit, and i'm getting some money to my paypal account... I might pick that up to mess around with first.

I can adjust a bit, but a rough idea on cost would be nice ;p. I might check the next time i'm in PS - Stereo's service is quite impressive ;p

Darth vader theme.

Play when the principal comes ;p

and another one. this is male/female - my Audiotechnica M50s won't stay on my ipod- but since my cheapie connectors are quite grippy, it seems to work better. I suppose if i was bored enough, and could get a 6 pin pot, i could hack in a volume control into this basic design for whatever reason..

Works for me- unless you have dropbox blocked for some reason. I tried attaching this to the post- does this work?

I wrote a howto on how to just replace the jack end of a headphone. I'm a bit lazy to go move over all the pictures so... i'll link it

Of course, one can just replace the whole thing, but there's cases where this may not be practical.. and of course, pardon my terrible workmanship. still learning to solder

I hope the picture isn't too big... this is probably the first DIY cable i soldered together from scratch. Its meant for the car (got aux port) so i never really test it other than continuity. The jacks are metal ones from continental electricals in SLT- i just really love the way they look, the cable is canare starquad. Can do a howto if anyone needs- i need to make a short extention cable for something else later, so, i can photograph that process.

Also, if you're new to making your own cables, this style of plug are very nice - dirt cheap, and they unsolder well, in case you forget to put on the strain relief or the cover. The WHOLE case is effectively the ground, so if you want to be really sure, you might want to cover the other two pins with a little heatshrink.

(removed the dropbox hosted image cause for some funny reason some people can't see it. the posts below have pix tho.)

Vaguely

Pardon the bad paint picture but this should show more clearly what i want to do (i hope) If i have a female connector at the headphone end, i could also use this to test interconnects. I have a load of crappy ones ;p

I'm currently rewireing a headphone which has wired on both cups - I'm considering two options - have a single female jack connecting to a double ended male cable (which should let me change the length easily, and is likely the least difficult option), or splice the ends into a 4 stranded cable and connect that to a headphone jack . Considering the wire i'm using seems to solder well, either's an option.

I'm just fixing these for fun, so i'm wondering which might be the better option.

actually, come to think of it, starhub occationally has a lot of server reset connection errors - its DNS related, I forgot cause i don't use my ISP DNS servers.

Honestly? Go try a few.

I own a ATH-M50 and i love it to bits, and honestly recommend it (I but considering audio is a very subjective thing, your best guide is your ears .

I also had that, as well as some sql error i shoulda saved.