The unsung hero - Portable/Pocket Radio

[N@Z 0]

Sure thing. You might want to try buying one in SG & getting one of the DIYers to replace the CAPS as detailed in Xin's website. Should work out cheaper than buying from him. So far mine has been burnt in continuously for a little over 48 hours on one single AAA battery with the E5 plugged into it. Got a fresh battery to listen to how it sounds tonight with the E4S.

 

Typically of any tuner it's as good as it's source. Some of our local station's music is atrocious to say the least. Sometimes sounding like badly encoded mp3 are being played. When it's good it's very impressive indeed, for something as tiny as a cigarette lighter.

[evo 0]

When it's good it's very impressive indeed, for something as tiny as a cigarette lighter.

 

agreed

 

btw, my results with experiments with a cheapo mini-to-mini cable for line-in recording to my njb3 instead of the fm recording on the remote have been mixed

 

think i need a better cable, and better reception too

 

when reception is good, plus radio stations don't use compressed music, the musical range is great

[N@Z 0]

Little update on the SRF-S84:

 

Well, as anticipated it sounds fabulous with the Etymotic ER4S! The S84 had no problems what so ever driving the higher impedance ER4S unamped. Initially it sounded a little bright because I have been using the unit exclusively with the Shure E5. After reacquainting myself there is no denying the improvements in sound produced from the modest tweaks that were made on the S84. The most significant & easily noticeable is the prodigious amount of low bass. That's on the Etys! You'll swear bass boost is activated but it isn't. I haven't even tried it with bass boost on but even with it off the Etys have visceral bass without the detrimental effects. Sibilance is still a problem with less than perfect reception, sounding splashy at worst but overall it's highly enjoyable.

 

Going back to the E5 I though I would be dissapointed but before doing that I swapped the Shure yellow foam ear sleeves with the larger grey ones from Etymotic. The Ety foamies felt more pliable, sealed better & didn't have to go in as deep as before. Surprisingly it's not as bad as I expected. Obviously it's sound characteristics is totally different from the Etys. Bass is fuller although not as detailed & extended as the ER4S. The impression of rolled off highs is not as noticeable as with the yellow foamies and detail is nearly on a par. The E5 sounds airier than the ER4S. You still get the Left-center-right headstage but instruments have better seperation & sounds like it coming outside of your head especially on the extreme left & right. Both sound good with vocals, the E5 also ehibiting an impression of extra depth within the L-C-R plane.

What made me retract my original intention to sell it was, after approaching 100hrs of burn-in/usage it sounded ALOT better than before. And on decent portable players it sounds impressive unamped. They have now graduated to my uber portable rig status especially partnered with the S84 & Sharp MD player.

[lekguan 0]

N@Z though you might want to try the tri flange sleeve. For the e1c I tried the foamies and flex sleeve as well as tri flange and I thik tri flange is way better. If I'm not wrong e1c and e5 use same foamies/tri flange, so it might be worth a try. YMMV.

Oh BTW, how do you compare the reception of the SR84 to other portable tuners?

[Q00 0]

folks, another good reason you shouldnt judge things too early on...it might just get better as it burns in!

 

Lucky you N@Z!...indeed impressive it can handle the ER4S high impedance with little difficulty!

[N@Z 0]

Lek: I have yet to try out the tri flange tips which comes specifically with the Shures. It's stalk is longer on the other end compared with the ety's tri flange. That I have tried before, prior to the proper burn-in it sounded a little too muddy because of the bass so maybe I should to try it out again & see how it compares now.

 

Concerning the S84's reception compared with other Portable's I can't say much because the only other portables I've used are the S56 (nearly similar reception to the S84), SRF-40W (a little more picky but unit sounds amazing for it's vintage) & see the photo below I forgot the model designation. Maybe firefox can enlighten us if he still has it. This is the digital version of the Analog 40W. The reception is not as good as the analog version.

Obviously the S84 is very good when you are stationary & it is located close to the body. If moving you can hear a little noise but no loss of sound. Depends where you are located really, more obstructions - poorer reception. Although, if you place it away from you especially when sitting at your PC the signal can be lost.

 

Q00: Yes I was on the verge of making that mistake myself with the E5 because most of the new headphones I owned tend to open up after only 48 hours. Thankfully it worked out great in the end.

[Blues 0]

N@z how long did you take to burn in the S84?

I just got mine today... bought it for listening to the radio stations at night back in kampung LOL

 

[N@Z 0]

Good for you! I burned it in only for 48hrs or so. I though it sounded good straight out of the box so to speak but the highs & bass extension improved further after that.

 

You using the etys with it?

[Blues 0]

erm... the e888 ..

[N@Z 0]

No problem, when I still had my MX400 that's what I used it with & it sounded great!

[Blues 0]

the reception is great.. been testing it out today in school. Much better when you place your hands or body close to it..

Really worth the mod..

btw naz, if it's ok maybe you can bring the modded srf-s84 to the meet too.. I want to hear the difference over the stock

[N@Z 0]

Mine is not stock either. The other stock one I referred to earlier in this thread was the SRF-S56 which was a birthday present for someone.

[Blues 0]

ahh.. ok

[Blues 0]

btw don't know what happened I think I typed wrongly..

I was going to type 'mine was unmodded' then it came out 'modded'

So I want to hear the xin modded s84 to see how it differs from mine(Stock)

So far so good.. I tested it on mrt, and other places, the only time where it couldn't get any reception is underpass. Other than that due the way I carry it(located close to my body and often my headphone wire touches the body) the reception is nothing short of amazing

Edited November 3, 2004 by Blues

[N@Z 0]

Reception wise it should still be the same. I'll bring it with me anyway.