The All Purpose Advice Thread

They're black!
You know how things with the color black are usually stronger, bigger, longer... oh wait.

Oh and the total price is inflated because of the international shipping + freight forwarding; I live pretty far away from the US, see.
I have yet to try any of the V-Moda offerings, I'll try to give them a shot next time I go to Jaben or something.

Edit: Might you have a personal recommendation on which V-Moda model? Only the M-100 is available locally where I live.

Comfort matters so much for me too!
But I think somehow comfort and durability rarely goes together. In my case this time I decide I can forego some degree of comfort for a more rugged build and portability.

Thanks for your impression about the K181, man if only there's a demo of it somewhere here.

 

The ones going for $88 on Amazon are the black too, FWIW, sold thru a market merchant tho... Silver/black is ironically $100-something. Guess we take a lot of deals for granted...

 

Well... the top two lowest price offerings on Amazon are not accepting shipments to my location though

 

Hi all... I'm a long-time reader, first-time poster

I couldn't find a thread dealing with the Head.Amp I have in mind: Little Dot Mk VI+, so posting this thread for feedback of owners or alternative recommendations.

I need a balanced Head.Amp recommendation, to drive my primary headphones, the HD650, as well as my secondary headphones, a Q701 [bass-port modded, balance modded]..
I may get an HD 800 S or a K812/K872, as soon as I get a chance to demo a post-burnt on pair. But I really love the music and scaling from the HD650 and will still keep it.

Currently driving my headphones from a Yulong Sabre DA8, via a Samson C-Que8 Head.Amp. Thought the connection to the DAC & Head.Amp is via balanced cables, the Head.Amp is single-ended.

What I'm looking for is a slightly more smoother, warmer tone. I also listen to music VERY loud, so need a Head.Amp that can allow my HD650's to scale well.

Is the Little Dot Mk VI+ what I'm looking for?
Would it be more versatile than the Little Dot Mk VIII SE, but the Little Dot Mk VIII SE is a better Head.Amp for my current and envisioned headphones?
Should I be looking at something like the Cavalli Liquid Carbon? -- Though, from what I gather, it seems a bit power lacking; is this not true?

I'm in South Africa, so no ability for in-store demos, or wide selection on local items.
We have a audiophile community, but it's rather small, so items that don't work out usually means very slow, massively price reduced second-hand sales.

 

I wouldn't agree with that, but my experience with the headphones is limited to meet conditions.

The 650s just sound a little thicker to me. I prefer the 600s for rock. A little more bite and edge. I also find them a little less picky about amp pairings.

Both are great, though, and I'm sure people with more experience will have far more insightful comparisons than I can provide...

 

::Update::
Just made payment for a Little Dot MK VI+, but can only give feedback after a month or so [1-2 week build time + international shipping from LittleDot.net + Customs delays, etc.]

 

The Noble 4 looks like a good upgrade from the etys. I tend to jump from low-fi to summit-fi territory so to speak that is still reasonable value for money. I was wondering whether the jump to UERR was worth it if it is still tonally neutral with no nagging dips in FR. I might consider the UERM on the 2nd hand market if it is the better CIEM.

 

My etys are insured knowing how they tend to break up after 2-3 years. Now I need to choose my upgrade (?UERR/M) or go the ER4P/S route as I have grown accustomed to their house sound these past 7 years.

 

Hi all,

I recently bought a pair of pre-Fazor LCD2's. Both rosewood rings are cracked in back where the yoke is mounted. Shipping to Audeze from South Africa is not something I'd like to do. So I found a fellow audio freak who also happens to be a master woodworker and he's agreed to help me. Has anyone attempted a DIY ring replacement? If so which types of wood are best? Anything to look out for in the process? Lessons learnt? A drawing would be nice too

Thanks!

 

I'd recommend birch or cherrywood if money is a concern. Former for a light and the latter for a darker look.
But you can use basically anything that looks good to you as long as it's not too porous like grenadilla for example.
Hard, dense wood has a tendency to crack in dry enviroments and is hard to work with.

Also you might wanna take a look at this video by Audeze:

 

Posted in another thread today, but cross-posting here:

Does anybody know of passive preamps with at least one XLR input (for Yggdrasil) that also have a remote control? I haven't found anything that looks cost-effective to fill this need in a combined headphone / video 2.0 setup in a living room.

I'm hoping that Schiit's stereo products they're working on this year will fill this role, but haven't heard anything since the very informal announcement.

 

Looking at a new SPL Auditor on sale for the equivalent of ~$480USD.

Anyone have any experiences with it?

Sigh, nevermind, the XLR output gain isn't controllable.

 

Hey everyone! So I just purchased an Ether C (though I'll have to wait for the summer to get it unfortunately) and I plan to drive it from an Oppo HA-1 at home. I would also like a portable option or something to use at the office if I wanted to. Unfortunately the only portable DAC/Amp I have is an Oppo HA-2 which apparently is not powerful enough to drive the Ether C.

So I would like some advice regarding a new portable DAC/Amp or DAP that would pair well with the Ether C. I am considering the Chord Mojo since it's received praise overall and apparently it has a good DAC as well which would probably be an upgrade from the HA-1's Sabre DAC. I think its amp is also powerful enough to drive the Ether C when on the go or at the office. I don't like the fact it can't be used as an amp by itself (no line in) and I absolutely hate its design and form factor. I'm also considering the Questyle QP-1R or Onkyo DP-X1 DAPs as they have received good reviews and apparently have good synergy with the Ether C. The drawback there would be that I don't know if their DAC would be an upgrade from the HA-1's DAC (DP-X1 also uses Sabre DACs) and I wouldn't be able to use them as a DAC only from my laptop since it has no USB or Optical input.

Anyway, I would love to hear advice or thoughts from others here. Maybe I should just keep the HA-2 and save up for a GMB + Mjo2 stack whenever I move back to the States? Since I live in both China and USA I prefer units that can accept 100-240 voltage inputs, which Cavalli, Schiit, AGD and EC don't do... otherwise I'd look at those options.

 

Can't message you due to your privacy settings. Have you used this?

 

Ether C are easier to drive than the HE-400i and HD600, I would recommend waiting until you receive them to try them from the HA-2 before buying something else for them.

 

What is a solid, reasonably priced (preferably < $200) USB-to-SPDIF converter that won't totally suck?

And should I drop $300 (+ cost of SPDIF converter) on a Theta Progeny, or is it just a meme DAC?

 

At that point, wouldn't it make more sense to have a SPIDF source in the PC? (assuming it's a desktop)

 

Maybe a used M2Tech spdif stick?

 

Decided today that I need a decently good pair of universal IEMs to travel with and such. Any recommendations for a nice fitting, no need to amp, good isolating pair of IEMs up to $300 or so?

Currently rocking with my modded 650s and GOV2 balanced at home, so I definitely prefer that nice smooth sound sig.