Loky

I dream of the day when all mp3 players, discman players and other portable music devices all come with bluetooth capability. The earphones/headphones will be wireless. What a milestone it will be!

Hi Thanks for referring me to the threads. I think my thread should be a follow up to these because in my humble opinion, the Xdreams are darn close to wired headphones in terms of sound quality. So wireless is getting close to acceptable. The new amphony 2000 should be quite good also, if only it were available here. Then again, someone in the previous thread mentioned that the sennheiser RS series phones were ok. I personally find even the top model (super overpriced) completely unacceptable. Even my amphony 1000 beats it flat. For the record, the S$260 amphony sounds like a $100 headphone, but its unique combination of being wireless and still reproducing full range audio anywhere in the home, makes it a winner. That said, I believe that no headphone user should ever have to be chained to the source device on a leash! With bluetooth and high bandwidth wireless LAN becoming common and miniaturized, I hope headphone technology will take another leap upwards.

Anyone here into cordless headphones? For the benefit of those who don't know, there are generally two types: analog and digital. Signal transmission is either by RF or IR. IR has a short operating distance -- 30ft, direct line of sight required. RF penetrates walls and has a wider operating distance. However, analog transmission through RF means that the signal is like an FM signal -- dynamics have to be compressed, hf freq response limited to 15 kHz. So the senns range is out completely -- the sound is not acceptable to audiophiles. Digital transmission is the best, and can be done via IR or RF. The only affordable RF digital headphones I can find are from a german company called Amphony. http://headwize2.powerpill.org/temp/ces03/...2003_south1.htm This is what I am using now. The other type (IR digital) is available from a company called Xdream, that makes a S$300+ model. http://www.xdreamfones.com/ Due to the high price of other brands, I have not checked out the other alternatives, but I note that many of these offer DTS or DD decoding. Price is around $800 or higher, so I won't be willing to try these anytime soon. Any other people wanna be free from the dreaded headphone leash?

I've checked out the forum at Hydrogenaudio, and the people there think it's only detection. Very difficult to A/B on my pc system for now, so I won't bother. But if it is confirmed that WMP can decode hdcd fully, I will attempt to connect my Audigy2 sound card analog output to my hi-fi. In the meantime, still playing around with cheap/free cd tweaks!

Thanks to all for your comments! What I did was -- manually and painstakingly peel off every bit of the sticky film from the pad, leaving behind the cloth. Now the whole phone looks like new! But eventually I do hope to get velour from Beyer. Should be quite comfy... Next target is my other headphones == ear pads also made of same stuff... and this time I don't think there is any cloth base. It's a pair of Amphony 2.4GHz wireless digital phones. I hope Beyer or some other manufacturer has velour pads for it too!

Hi Once, my friend was playing this cd-r copy of an HDCD recording I made for him. When the music played on his system, I was unimpressed. It sounded no better than the system characteristics that I had grown famililar with before this. Then I noticed that the HDCD light was not ON. That means the player did not detect the hdcd flag. But I was sure I had done a 100% dupe. So i restarted the cd player (Nad 541i), reinserted the disc, and this time the hdcd light came on. As you would expect, the sound was improved! The effect is quite subtle, but similar to what I experienced when I activated or deactivated upsampling on my MSB Link III. Sort of like -- more extended highs, more microdynamics, taller deeper soundstage. I have been eyeing an outboard HDCD decoder ever since -- Rotel 1066 looks like the perfect device for me. However, I do note that many audiophiles are not hankering after HDCD. Some say the very fact that a recording and its playback devices has hdcd just means that the pacific microsonic eqpt is used, and these just happen to be very good dacs. Some say that decoding is not necessary as long as the recording was encoded in hdcd, meaning better eqpt and care were used for ensuring a high quality transfer. Some others claim that hdcd is not an attractive proposition for manufacturers, so since it will never catch onto the main stream, they would rather leap one step above hdcd and go for dvd-a/sacd. I, for one, would prefer defeatable hdcd decoding, so that I could do comparisons. I also heard the Pacific Microsonics is hoping to incorporate the technology into dvd-a recordings and normal dts/ac3 soundtracks. Maybe then it will spill over to all cd players. In the meantime, I note that Windows Media Player 9.x detects hdcd encoded recordings. Does anyone know if it actually "decodes" the bitstream? Or it's just a detection feature?

CK, You seem to swear by HDCD. Is it really that good? HDCD doesn't seem popular, and many of the high end cd players/DACs don't even feature it. What hdcd decoder are you using? Compared to SACD/DVD-A, how does HDCD stand? Please enlighten me cos I have always wondered how HDCD sounds when decoded properly.... Thanks!

I forgot to mention that some of the tweaks can be combined together... that's extreme x (no. of tweaks combined)!

Talking about Qoo... I *swear* that any music cd sounds better when I am sipping a chilled icycold glass of Qoo green grape!

Wah that's cool!!

I have replaced once before, at high price, and the darn thing still rots. I ain't gonna replace something that keeps rotting away. Shame on Sony.

Hi Beyer pads sound good. Where to see the details, and where to buy? Thanks for your help!

The fluorescent lighting thing + the lathe to shave the rim to 45 degrees, are featured in Positive Feedback, a very high-end audiophile publication. Dunno whether they are hallucinating or not, but here's the story: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue1/swartz.htm

Hey thanks for the tips! Koss eh? Ok I have checked the pricelist and may visit Queensway for a look

Headphones let us hear differences between tweaks more clearly... so I'd like to start this thread to compile a list of tweaks to cds. Here is what I have heard about so far: 1. Colouring the rims and inner rim with Green or Black pens EFFECTIVENESS: Good 2. Cutting the rim with a lathe so that the rim is angled 45 degrees EFFECTIVENESS: New product, unproven 3. Applying antistatic solution to reduce static, or other means to remove static EFFECTIVENESS: Not sure 4. Applying any liquid to improve clarity, reduce scratches or increase refractivity EFFECTIVENESS: Varies 5. Shining flourescent light over the cd before playing EFFECTIVENESS: rare new technique, not proven 6. Cryogenically freezing the cd in sub-zero temperatures before thawing EFFECTIVENESS: Dunno 7. Putting the cd in a sealed bag and freezing inside the freezer for 16 hours EFFECTIVENESS: Tried it, no noticeable improvement 8. Putting a special mat over a CD when loading, to balance it + block light loss EFFECTIVENESS: More harmful to the cd player mechanism than what the improvement is worth 9. Applying a special green plastic ring around the cd when playing EFFECTIVENESS: Similar to 1) but much more costly 10. Duping entire CD to black cds using EAC/cd writer EFFECTIVENESS: Tried it -- sonic improvement varies with system character 11. Digging ears thoroughly before listening to any CD EFFECTIVENESS: Definite, but has the side effect of making unwanted sounds (nagging from parents, gf, etc) more prominent also 12. Using Yamaha's AudioMaster II technology to burn a cdr at 4x speed to reduce jitter EFFECTIVENESS: Mild if noticeable at all. Better effect on black Melody cdrs though 13. Sanding the rim of the cd EFFECTIVENESS: Negligible if the rims were unsmooth in the first place. 14. Applying damping material onto the cd's label surface to control resonance EFFECTIVENESS: Dunno 15. Make 6 black or green lines emanating from the centre of the CD. Each line is a little less than one quarter inch wide. It's like cutting a cake into 6 equal pieces. EFFECTIVENESS: Never tried. 16. Throwing the cd away and listening to the vinyl equivalent. EFFECTIVENESS: This is not a tweak, but I'm sure vinyl enthusiasts wish every newly released cd has a vinyl equivalent! Anyone who can contribute more tweaks/info/opinions to this thread is most welcome!