Wireless is a thing now. Who knew? LDAC, Sony MUC-M2BT, and Campfire Andromeda IEM

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by zerodeefex, Jun 29, 2017.

  1. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    That's terminated with mmcx.
     
  2. ald0s

    ald0s Facebook Friend

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    Ah you have UERMs I forgot they’re 2 pin. I think UE have started offering MMCX with their ciems recently - I personally hate how they spin around though.

    I’d love to hear from someone whose tried the UE adapter with some great iems.
     
  3. limesoft

    limesoft Friend

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    I've been using the WF-1000x for few days now - my initial opinion is that Sony have really done a very good thing here, I did not expect this level of sound quality. They are no Andro killers of course, but in my opinion they beat quite a few $200+ wired IEMs in terms of sound quality; to my ears they are relatively neutralish with a warm tilt; sub bass is good and boosted a bit, a gentle dip in mids and bit of raise in 2-4khz region - but generally no jarring dips or bumps in the frequency response (something that is quite rare to find in my opinion), imaging is good for the price.. they have a smooth, friendly, non sibilant sound but still with good level of detail. Obviously there's bit of DSP magic going on to compensate for the acoustics, but I have no problems with the approach if the net result is this good.
    They sound more balanced and better overall to me than both Bose QC35 and Sony WH-1000XM2. Keep in mind that lately I prefer warmer sounding headphones, like HD650, Oppo PM3, so if this isn't you then the Sonys might not be up your street.

    No concerns with everything else - comfort is excellent, battery isn't amazing but fine with the portable fast charging storage, connection stability is fine, build quality is nice. I had to manually switch on AAC support on my Macbook to get better SQ, and no AAC on Android yet (but coming in Oreo)..

    Thumbs up for Sony for delivering excellent sounding and fully Wireless IEMs. Keep in mind I've been using them for few days only so my view should be taken with a pinch of salt
     
  4. bengo

    bengo Friend

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  5. SSLogic

    SSLogic New

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    I have the UE/Jaybird mmcx bluetooth cable with my UERR, and it is as good as can be expected from AAC. The proprietary charging adapter/battery is annoying, but the battery is really handy when you want to use it for more than 5-6 hours without plugging it in. There is a slight hiss with the UERR and can hear the difference when amp turns on off. All in all it the 2nd best bluetooth adapter I have used, and way more convenient than the Radsone earstudio.

    UE will change the connector on any of their ciems for $200. I also hate how mmcx connectors twist when used with iems. UE sends out a tube of deoxit with their mmcx ciems.
     
  6. aufmerksam

    aufmerksam Friend

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    I have not used the radsone and am skeptical about the "amazing feature!" list given the price and form factor. I am interested on paper, which usually translates to the product being a turd. I have a slate of rapid fire questions, if you will indulge:
    - What are your primary issues with the radsone?
    - Are we to presume that is the best you have used so far?
    - Can you hear hiss with iems?
     
  7. SSLogic

    SSLogic New

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    The Radsone is the my favorite bluetooth adapter. Granted I have only used earstudio, meelectronic mmcx, UE/Jaybird, china csr8675, and a china csr8645. If the radsone wasn't better than the UE cable, I was going to wait until the newer QC5100 based bluetooth cables came out. I didn't know about the Campfire Andromeda, but was considering the Sony if I got desperate.

    -Form factor is a trade off of better battery life for larger size and universal use vs convenience of an inline mmcx cable.
    -No hiss on UERM, UERR, ue900s, nor any 10 or so dynamic iems I have. I am fairly sensitive to any hiss.
    -Bass is a little bloomy or loose on the balanced armature iems, even on 2xcurrent mode or balanced output, same OI. Haven't spent too much time with the dynamic driver iems.
    -resolution, sound stage(ever so slightly), clarity, extension are all better than my pixel xl, iphone 6s. Haven't done a tone of a/b comparison with my apogee groove, but the radsone is similar in quality, but smoother/velvet-like with slower/looser bass.
    -the radsone sounds like warm garbage paired with Senheiser 595(yes I know I need more and better over the ears)
    -really nit picky, but the power/play/answer button is squishy and lacks the click of the other
    -2db incremental analog volume control is awesome, especially with sensitive iems!
    -the radsone has less bass with my sennheiser 595, than the groove, but about on par with other dacs with voltage amps. I don't have my DT990s nor any other high impedance headphones to test it with.
    -best bluetooth range of all cable or clips I have used. I can have my phone in my pocket and not have it breakup in noisy rf environments.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
  8. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    I ordered Redsone ES100 this morning from Amazon.ca and got it just few hours ago :).
    The headphones/IEMs I would contemplate using with it are MSR7, MD+, maybe ER4-SR.
    ES100 pairs well with DP-X1, and my phone HTC-10, The BT range is indeed impressive, I walked from my office to the kitchen, almost 40 feet before I realized I have no cable.
    I only had a chance to listen for maybe 2 hours to MSR7 comparing cable connection vs ES100. I used very short Fiio 3.5 cable and just let ES100 hang from the headphone jack.
    I would say that with MSR7 stock cable, which is crappy IMHO, I could hear no difference. Comparing to DIY Mogami wire with Eidolic connectors, ES100 had less bass extension and macrodynamic, but the sound was clean, same level of details, and I did not hear any difference in instrument separation.
    All of the above are obviously very quick and early impressions, I will spend few days with this toy and post an update.
    I am not planning to use BT for critical listening anyway, and for traveling and sound isolation I am perfectly happy with ER4-SR with Comply pro tips. So if all goes well, ES100 may be all BT I would need for a long time.
    Just for fun tried few minutes with T5p.2 SE and well, I have to come back to it because it sounded promising. I have not tried 2.5 balanced jack yet, and did not play with EQ.
     
  9. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    I would think it wasn't intended to drive full size headphones. Probably best to stick with IEMs.
    You let it hang from the headphone cup using a cable like this?

    31a9H59PA4L._SX425_.jpg

    Wouldn't be banging around all over the place? Why not use a slightly longer cable and clip it to your shirt or something?
     
  10. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    Fiio cable is very stiff and shorter than on your picture. es100 is very light and was not not moving. for the outdoor use a longer wire an a clip is better, although the es100 clip is a bit flimsy.
     
  11. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    First update on Redson ES100. I tried only with full size headphones and DP-X1. Again, it will take a lot more to compare ES100 to the sound using wires, but mostly because the difference is not striking. I realize that almost everything is "better" using a wire: microdynamics, extension on both ends, bass control, vocals are more forward and engaging. But not to the point that I I do not want to listen with ES100, I am still impressed how well it sounds.
    1. Controls work without any issues but are a bit difficult to find by touch
    2. Both 3.5 SE and 2.5 balanced jacks are very solid
    3. Firmware upgrade is the first thing to be done to get all the features, including the support for balanced hp.
      At first it looks like some kind of voodoo ritual but it works. The trick is to hold the on/off button through the entire process
    4. BT connections
      Connects to two devices without any issues, as I said the distance is impressive
    5. SE and balanced mode
      I did the testing with DP-X1 using MSR7 in SE , and T5p.2 for balanced mode
      There are two gain levels in each mode. The unit can drive MSR7 on low gain in SE mode without any problems. In balanced mode T5p.2 sounds very natural on low gain. I could use both Dp-X1 and ES100 volume control and the volume level could be set way above what I could tolerate.
      Comparing to T5p.2 directly from DP-X1 balanced, ES100 sounds brighter but not to the point of being fatiguing.
    6. Digital filters
      - sharp roll-off
      - slow roll 0ff
      - short delay sharp,
      - and short delay slow roll-ff
      there is noticeable difference between those, slow roll off sounds the most natural to me
    7. DAC oversampling rate 1x, 2x, 4x I did not hear any difference
    8. Phone calls: no issues, will take some time to get the a mic in a right position. I would not use it for teleconferencing but it is perfectly acceptable.
    I tried Mpow BT receiver before but the sound was just not good. This one, ES100, may not be to everyone taste but it is way better. Sure, Sony 1000X is more fun and comfort. But converting MSR7 and T5p.2 to wireless, without loosing their sound signature, with one $100 device was worth trying, and I am am going to keep it.
    The next round will be with MD+ and ER4-SR
     
  12. lac29

    lac29 Acquaintance

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    If you try to play a FLAC song via the ES100, does it just not play?
     
  13. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    IO am not sure I understand the question , most of tracks I used for initial testing of ES100 was .flac. 44.1/16 played either from my phone or DP-X1. @sfoclt explained in his post how it works between the BT transmitter and receiver (ES100 in this case)
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2018
  14. lac29

    lac29 Acquaintance

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    Yeah, I was just confused as to all these BT codecs and the difference between them were. I guess there is no "compatibility" differences in terms of the audio source (mp3, FLAC, etc). It's purely a transmission difference (bandwidth, etc).
     
  15. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    Sony 1000X M2, a nice surprise.
    My son started a job that requires a lot of flying and he asked for an ANC headphones with Bluetooth. He does not care much for superb SQ, good ANC is very important. He is very much into audio books, but also listens to classic rock, metal, rap. I read some reviews about MDR 1000X and thought that, if the price is right, it could be a good fit. I got refurbished 1000x M2 for $279, have been using it for the last two days and I am impressed.
    First ANC:
    Full ANC is superb, I was standing next to my very noisy AC unit and could not hear much, other than some high frequency resonance but at very low volume. Then watched a movie with dish washer on, which I could never do before , and I did not hear a thing, except the movie of course. People may not appreciate the ambient NC function but I found it very nice in the situation when people are trying to say something to you. No need to remove the headphones just press the ANC button. This is not the same as turning ANC off. 1000X would still to large extend cancel the sound of AC for example but you can hear human voice. With ANC completely off the sound isolation will not let you hear voices.
    Comfort:
    After 1h walk on the beach in like 28-30C in full sun there was some sweat on the pads but my ears were not very hot.
    Pads are a bit too small for me but my ears are huge and thanks God I did not pass the ear size to my son.
    Sound:
    I was not looking for that specifically but it is very, very good. If I was listening to classic rock, metal, rap etc those could be my only headphones. I do not know how anyone would want more bass, yes there are cans with better bass control but 1000X is doing very respectable job here. The rest of the spectrum is just comfortable and fun to listen to for hours. I guess you cannot ask more from the headphones to use on long flights.
    BT: nothing to say here, pairing is immediate, connection is good and stable.

    I was a bit put off by the 90 days repair or replacement only warranty form the seller but I did not hear many stores about Sony 1000X problems.

    EDIT: I got very interested in getting MDR 1000X for myself and went to the local Best Buy where they have QC35 on display, to compare just ANC. As some other people who commented on InnerFidelity review o 1000X I have no idea how the QC35 full ANV can measure 5dB better than Sony. In real life performance it is jut not the case.
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2018
  16. Imraan

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    Glad you like them! As we were discussing in the advice thread - I love mine for the office. With an amp the bass control improves dramatically and they become a really, really good listen for suitable genres (electronic, rap, metal, pop).

    They're very efficient so most amps will do a good job. I've used Dragonfly Red, Fulla 2 & RME ADI-2 DAC all with good results.
     
  17. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Samsung finally rolled out the Oreo update for my phone yesterday. When I connected the MUC I was pleased to see this.

    1535010538102.jpg

    Strangely, I've lost Android volume control of the BT audio output, but that's ok as I have the volume control of the media player to get enough granularity on the MUC.

    I'd been using my ER4Ps at the gym with standard BT for a long time and gotten used to mediocre SQ. It was a very pleasant surprise to get ALL the music again. Particularly noticeable is that LDAC bass is deeper and punchier. U wouldn't think BT would have to compromise on low freq.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2018
  18. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Not sure if this was mentioned (searched but couldn't find anything). I was going through the developer options trying to disable an annoying system notification and found this.

    Screenshot_20180826-010032_Settings.jpg

    It was set to Best Effort by default. Haven't listened to it turned up to 11 yet, but this is where we'd want it to be.
     
  19. Bina

    Bina MOT - Shanling

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    LDAC settings on Androids are annoying and confusing. Most of them have the setting in developers options, some also put it into the submenu of each paired device and some stock apps has it in their settings too. If you want to be sure you are going the highest LDAC quality, I recommend checking these three places to be sure.
     
  20. Imraan

    Imraan Friend

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    Shure have a new RMCE-BT2 Cable-Dongle thing - See LINK.

    TL;DR - MMCX, in-line mic+remote, 10+Hrs battery, 'dedicated headphone amp' fwiw, aptx HD, NO LDAC, Bluetooth 5.0, not a neckbud but rather a pendant style (which I prefer). USD 150.

    Seems really interesting - I'm considering grabbing one for my Andros for out and about and short trips. I'm freelancing atm and on the phone a fuckton more than I used to be, while also working in cafes and such.

    I think it's a solid alternative BT solution - anyone else considering getting one?
     

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