Super Best Audio Friends

I was hoping to get through my backlog of gear reviews before the end of the US Thanksgiving Holiday. With this teaser, I guess we can say that I partially kept that promise. I will follow up on measurements for this and other gear during the coming week. The EC Mini is a transportable CD Player! Yes, CD Player. On the cusp of 2024. Are CDs making a comeback like vinyl? Maybe, who knows? I know there are more than a few readers who still use their spinners.

What I can say so far is that the EC Mini is sooo fricking cool!

Shanling EC Mini and ETA Mini C Headphone

I have not yet had the time to test all features of the EC Mini. The EC mini has a number of outputs. On the front panel are a 1/8" phono jack for headphones and a 4.4mm TRRS jack for balanced connectors. The back has RCA lineouts and a USB output to feed DACs (coaxial, optical, and AES digital are non-existent). There is a little switch for vehicle mode which I assume activates a buffer in case the laser loses tracking for bumps.

There are buttons on the front of the EC Mini for power, play, stop, eject, forward, back, and volume. The display on the top of the unit has iconography for repeat, back, play/pause, forward. To my delight, these icons are not decorative, they are functional - the display is touch sensitive! Shanling after all did make it tempting for me to press them!

Recently, I bought @jexby 's Schiit Piety and mentioned I was pairing it with an Arya Organic (which I ended up not getting because the HE1000 Stealth was only a hundred dollars more and I never had a good experience with any Arya I've tried.) He brought up that there aren't real impressions of the Arya Organic (or any of the Hifiman thousand dollar tier of headphones.)



And honestly, I could see why. I have a very varied history of trying Hifiman egg-shaped headphones and absolutely hating them for one reason or another. The only ones I liked were the original HE1000 and the HE-X - All the Anandas, the Aryas (minus Organic,) and Edition XS all had SOMETHING in the treble that ruined the timbre completely and I couldn't listen to them long. Or, in the Ananda's case, the dynamics being so bad that everything sounded like it was all the same volume and there wasn't any real nuance to it (I.e., the wall of sound.)

I had heard the Arya Organic (and the HE1000s) had fixed a lot of these issues, but...well, that was from a few youtubers. Then I looked a bit deeper (and watched Resolve's review) and came to the realization that the treble was probably entirely too hot and spikey in the FR for me to enjoy. The HE1000 Stealth, however, had a very similar FR except for higher lower-mids and a lot smoother treble.

In theory, I should have not be able to tell the difference, but I did. The test procedure was kind of clunky with an assortment of cables and a primitive switch. I'm sure the "objectivists" cried foul and moved the goalposts as always, pointing out that 103db "SINAD" may not have be sufficient for transparency or the manual procedures used for switching the sources was inadequate, i.e. my kids or wife who did the cable switches telepathically beamed what they did with the cables to my brain. This time around, I wanted to be more sure, so I used a machine, the Van Alstine ABX comparator to conduct the randomized ABX tests.

I did this really quickly. The way the Van Alstine ABC comparator works is that it lets the listener go back and forth from Test 1 to Test 8 at their leisure for a long as they want. For each test, the amp A or B is randomly selected beforehand for the set of 8 once the formal "test" button is depressed. I decided to speed through like mad man, as if I hated the tests. Normally I take practice sessions, but I felt pretty confident I could tell the difference. Modius E, a high SINAD DAC was used as the source. The outputs of the devices were adjusted with a 1kHz signal so that they were within 0.1db. My JAR600 was used for the test. One of the reasons for this is that the E50 seemed to have issues driving 26.4-ohm loads into 2Vrms with one channel, but no problem with driving 300-ohm loads. Both amps were selected because of their high "SINAD". The Unity no better than 115db. The Topping 121db. Per objectivist theory, both are transparent and one should not be able to tell the difference.

I don't plan on commenting much on the L50 as I know there is probably no interest in this from readers of this site. However, I did wanted to post some measurements. This unit was not sent or gifted to me by Topping. I had to buy it from Amazon (there are some discounts going on with Topping gear which I am never seen before. Act now!). Let's just start with ASR type measurements.

It's been a about a year since I last reviewed a Topping product. The last was the D10s (reviewed here) which was forgettable - that is I actually don't remember anything about it. I know Topping gear has next to zero interest here, but I think it's important to take the pulse of things Topping every now-and-then to see how far they have progressed. We never know, maybe one day their audio engineers will design by ears first and measurements second, rather than design purely by APx555*. I know expectations are low from everyone here; but hey, I love to be proven wrong. And in the past, I have been proven wrong and admitted it.

My 40th Birthday Fundraiser! I’m 40 years old! And I have been sick with a severe chronic illness for which there are few treatments and no cure for 19 years.

Fundraiser: http://spot.fund/FindACureForMEcfs2023

I actually have been doing a birthday fundraiser for the last 4 years since 2020 but haven’t shared much about my illness here, so I haven’t posted them here.

But after reappearing suddenly in 2020 after being absent from this community for 7 years (I know a lot of people here didn’t understand this at least at first) and then becoming very close with this community for 3 years and then disappearing again suddenly this last summer for 3 or 4 months I would like to explain what has been going on with me and explain the illness and my story a bit and also give you all a chance to donate to the best cause you could possibly donate to. There is no other illness that causes so much suffering and is so neglected, where your donation will have such a huge impact on the quality of life of millions of people around the world.

http://spot.fund/FindACureForMEcfs2023

First of all, don't listen to me. Check out the plethora of honest Douk Audio U3 reviews on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=douk+audio+u3! I think one guy even said it got him to listen to music again! Wow, this $40 amp must be really amazing! A giant killer even! A new standard in HiFi? Crafted by the ancient elves!



Second Harmonic (H2) Distortion Product

When I started to look at how to effectively integrate my REL R-305 subwoofer with a pair of "mains" speakers using a statistical approach called Design of Experiments to optimize integration of subwoofers for a given room with a set of "mains" speakers.

To start with here is an introduction to Design of Experiments.

Description
Design of Experiments (DOE) is a powerful tool that can be used in a variety of experimental situations. DOE allows for multiple input factors to be manipulated determining their effect on a desired output (response). By manipulating multiple inputs at the same time, DOE can identify important interactions that may be missed when experimenting with one factor at a time. All possible combinations can be investigated (full factorial) or only a portion of the possible combinations (fractional factorial). Fractional factorials will not be discussed here.

...

An example trace as my starting point for reference is shown. The purple trace is where I started with the sub in, the brown trace with the sub out, before optimizing things using the DOE approach. The following is the real-time, IN-ROOM measured response for the right speaker:

I just saw they’ve released a new, higher-end Phono stage: the Skoll… https://www.schiit.com/products/skoll
Figured we’d need a thread (didn’t see one on searching).
Anyone out there tried it? I really like the price (a lot), and am sorely tempted.



MOD EDIT - Impressions start here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/the-just-announced-schiit-skoll.13874/#post-418411

It's been a while since there has been a Socal meetup and a few of us have decided to organize a casual meetup.


When/Where:
The event will be on Sunday Nov 12th from 10AM - 5PM. The location has been finalized - it is going to be in a ~900-1000 sq ft hotel conference room by the 5 freeway and Disneyland. I will PM the venue and address to those of you who are attending. You can stay for as little or as long as you'd like and can come and go freely.

Cost:
It will be $28/person to attend - this is to cover the cost of the room, taxes, and other associated fees (I have already paid for the venue). There will be no charge for parking and you can exit/enter anytime with no extra parking or other costs. To book your spot, please PM me and I will provide you with a paypal address for payment. For now, no refunds after Wednesday 11:59PM Nov 8th as it's too much to shuffle people around with less than 2 days before the event. If you need an alternate way to pay OR are not comfortable sending money to me individually, we can discuss via PM and work something out through SBAF as well,

Recently, I was jamming out to my Olina SEs on an Apple Dongle and wondering why I had so much expensive equipment on my desk when this sounded fine. Still, I didn’t want to give up my Custom Cans-modded HD6XX, my Atrium, or my Bottlehead Crack. But since I got the Crack, I’d been using my RebelAmp a lot less except as a Preamp for my cheapo speakers (I’m not able to use speakers much because of my living situation). I did have a Schiit Bifrost 2/64, but if the Apple Dongle sounded pretty good to me, did I really need something so expensive? Anyway, the 2/64 seemed to add a little bit too much, I don’t know, texture? Graininess? Something. Anyway, I also have a Schiit Modi+ in my closet and that sounded pretty good, but what if I replaced the Rebel and the Bifrost with a nice, compact little package that wouldn’t take up much space on my desk? What if I replaced them both with the inexpensive, feature-rich, and well-reviewed Fiio K7 Pro? Think of how much money and desk space I could recoup then!

So I bought the K7, plugged it in, wired it up and…

And it was terrible. Just glare-city, glassy, overbearing treble without much depth or detail. Keep in mind I’m listening to this with the HD6XX and the Atrium, and in both cases using the balanced out so getting the (theoretical) optimum experience. Likewise on my cheapo Edifier R1700BT speakers, there was a glare and treble that I’d never experienced with the Bifrost/Rebel setup.

How does this thing have so many good reviews? I’ve even seen people on Discord say this is the default budget recommendation over the Modi/Magni stack. Is there something fundamentally different about my hearing from other peoples? Because this thing sounds unbearable to me, and it clearly doesn’t to a lot of people, I just don’t get it.

But this isn’t the first time I had an experience like this. My first proper DAC/amp was the Zen DAC which I loved and paired with a Sundara. I then added the Zen Can to it and thought it was even better.

Estron provided the DualBaX Zebra cable reviewed here. I normally don’t talk much about cables beyond always desiring thinner IEM cables that are soft, pliable and with little to no memory. Ever since I first handled a Linum cable nearly a decade ago, I have been a fan of their approach to cable design. Their design aesthetic matches my own- simple, minimalist and functional.


Photo from Linum product page

Back in 2014 I first became acquainted with Linum cables, when I reviewed their OG BaX balanced cable for Cymbacavum. That particular model, along with the Music and Vocal models, are the thinnest they make. According to my old review, that model was 0.9mm in diameter and weighed around 2.7 grams (0.095 oz), although the newer generation may weigh slightly more. That’s a seriously thin cable. It had a pull strength of 60n/13lbs, so it was fairly durable considering its minuscule size. The OG BaX was joy to wear, as it was virtually invisible and completely disappeared with regards to feel over the ear, even when wearing glasses. The downsides were that model tangled really easily and was a bit of a bear to untangle. Also, due to the light weight, heavier IEMs couldn’t just be dangled over your ears, if you removed them to talk to someone. Perhaps another downside to such a thin cable, or perhaps a benefit depending on use-case, were the impedance specifications:

Vocal: 3.9Ω (out of production)
Music: 2.0Ω
BaX: 1.5Ω