Audio Random IEM / Headphone Rants

If you are looking for pure battery life + storage space, Cowon J3 (32GB + 32GB microSD, 30 hours at least) makes more sense. Otherwise look for one of the Sony's with rated battery life of 50 hours and use only VBR0 files. My E353 with it's miniscule 4GB space lost only 50% of battery at 39 hours while shuffling and repeating.

FiiO X3 may satisfy both those requirements. Even my QA350 at worst took about 2 hrs+ (will time it this time) for a full charge though the battery life seems around 6 hrs or so (will time it next time). X3 is likely to have 10 hrs rated battery life and 2 hrs at most for charging. The other reason I look at X3 is it's Coax out. With QA350 and the X3, I would have two players capable of digital and line out, but no storage. Still just thinking ....
 
not pure battery life and storage. am looking for everything :p

CLAS interests me because i can use the ipod with it . and it has good charge/playback times. I will need a portable amp with it .

any good portable amps with good battery. ( what's charge/playback (approx. ) times of the arrow ? )

Just audio AHA -120 , gives out approx 32 Hrs of class A amplification, lacks reviews though, also i need portable for my Miracle not HE6 :p

( i hate headfonia :mad: , every other review he puts out seems to be a ground breaking product )

i dont really care about the digital out ( i did , when i was considering JH3A) now.
 
Many issues with your ideas :p

strategy said:
CLAS interests me because i can use the ipod with it and it has good charge/playback times. I will need a portable amp with it
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That is not what I'd call portable, but it's transportable. I have different plans ;)

strategy said:
any good portable amps with good battery. ( what's charge/playback (approx. ) times of the arrow ? )
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Let's make one thing clear - Just one freakin' Hifiman is not the benchmark for battery charging times. Portable amps, DACs which I have don't take more than 2-3 hours to charge, some less, some more (S9 - 3 hours, Nanite N2 - 2 hrs and so on). Arrow is not as much a f***d up product like HM602. I've charged it only once since getting it and I'd roughly estimate 30-50 hrs (iBasso T3 can also go for 20+ hours).

strategy said:
Just audio AHA -120 , gives out approx 32 Hrs of class A amplification, lacks reviews though, also i need portable for my Miracle not HE6 :p
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From the same review

Perhaps one factor that may get in the way of a solid recommendation is its size. It’s not Triad Audio LISA 3 big, but it’s still bigger than the i-Qube or the RSA SR-71A, both being the bigger amp I had on the portable amp shootout. The footprint probably makes it a good stack for the Hifiman HM-801, though I haven’t tried it with the HM-801. But it’s definitely too big to be pocketable. I certainly am not going to carry this amplifier around when I want to be mobile

strategy said:
( i hate headfonia :mad: , every other review he puts out seems to be a ground breaking product )
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That right there is a problem. 6Moons and Headfonia are great for flowery prose and photos, but their reviews are not always something I can agree with.

strategy said:
i dont really care about the digital out ( i did , when i was considering JH3A) now.
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Oh! you will - if what I think of getting turns out to be really good as they say :p
 
Haven't really tried any other portable, but the P51 Mustang and the Protector from RSA both have pretty short charge times and insanely long battery life.
 
esanthosh said:
Many issues with your ideas :p

That is not what I'd call portable, but it's transportable. I have different plans ;)
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size does not come in my definition of portable, as said before , battery, SQ, etc are important , not the size ( for me )

also Ipod 120 + CLAS + pico slim is a great setup , portable even ...around the same size as HM602 , smaller than qls QA350

esanthosh said:
Let's make one thing clear - Just one freakin' Hifiman is not the benchmark for battery charging times. Portable amps, DACs which I have don't take more than 2-3 hours to charge, some less, some more (S9 - 3 hours, Nanite N2 - 2 hrs and so on). Arrow is not as much a f***d up product like HM602. I've charged it only once since getting it and I'd roughly estimate 30-50 hrs (iBasso T3 can also go for 20+ hours).
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HM602 is bad only when battery is concerned, i prefer it over sflo by a good margin.

sflo also has bad charge time.

review of HP-p1 says it takes 5 Hrs of charging and 7 hrs playback.

so no we are not talking about just i thing here, ost of the things i have considered have bad playback times .

1. hifiman players . (5-6 Hrs charge ; 8-10 HRS Playback )

2. Sflo 2 (4.5-5.5 Hrs charge ; 8-10 HRS Playback )

3. HP-P1 (5 Hrs charge ; 7-8 HRS Playback )

4. C4. (5 Hrs cahrge ; 7-8Hrs playback )

I need a DAP with good DAC. amp i can add.

esanthosh said:
From the same review

Perhaps one factor that may get in the way of a solid recommendation is its size. It’s not Triad Audio LISA 3 big, but it’s still bigger than the i-Qube or the RSA SR-71A, both being the bigger amp I had on the portable amp shootout. The footprint probably makes it a good stack for the Hifiman HM-801, though I haven’t tried it with the HM-801. But it’s definitely too big to be pocketable. I certainly am not going to carry this amplifier around when I want to be mobile

That right there is a problem. 6Moons and Headfonia are great for flowery prose and photos, but their reviews are not always something I can agree with.
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Damn it says " The sound quality is so amazing, I think it just fall a little bit behind in terms of resolution than the Burson HA-160D amplifier! "

esanthosh said:
Oh! you will - if what I think of getting turns out to be really good as they say :p
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am following it . :D
 
QA350 is not meant to be ...portable. No portable player comes with a remote, which QA350 does. It is meant to replace your HTPC, I think it's 'tiny' for that function :p

Anyways, my idea of 'portable' has always been one device - Clip+ or some other small and easy to carry DAP which is a bit more than decent sounding. Even carrying an amp is a bit of a stretch. I understand where you are going with this (great UI + great DAC + great Amp + custom IEM), but that's also one costly setup you are going to carry. I don't think I'll be happy carrying $1800-2000 worth of equipment with me for a few hours of travel. My travel plans at most include a Clip+ and a sub-3K IEM - Isolation, a bit sturdy and/or easy and cheap to replace are the only qualities I look at. Rest just takes a bit of brain adjustment. Why not just listen to music for a change? I've been able to do it again these last few days once I made certain decisions about what I am going to do.
 
Are the PL-30 too harsh sounding?

I don't know how to put it but its really not possible for me to use them at a high volume.

I got them for good instrument separation in Thrash Metal genre as well as for clear solos.

They do that job very well but end up sounding too shrill on the ears at high volumes on Ipod touch, Fuze+, Laptop :)P).

Will they improve over time or do they sound like that only?
 
kestrel5915 said:
Are the PL-30 too harsh sounding?

I don't know how to put it but its really not possible for me to use them at a high volume.

I got them for good instrument separation in Thrash Metal genre as well as for clear solos.

They do that job very well but end up sounding too shrill on the ears at high volumes on Ipod touch, Fuze+, Laptop :)P).

Will they improve over time or do they sound like that only?
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Might try taming down higher end frequencies or listen at low volume.
 
kestrel5915 said:
Are the PL-30 too harsh sounding?

I don't know how to put it but its really not possible for me to use them at a high volume.

I got them for good instrument separation in Thrash Metal genre as well as for clear solos.

They do that job very well but end up sounding too shrill on the ears at high volumes on Ipod touch, Fuze+, Laptop :)P).

Will they improve over time or do they sound like that only?
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Try changing your tips. PL-30 are not shrill at all, compared to M6 etc.
 
sony is to launch a range of Balanced armature IEMs , in their so called "Asia Pacific"

In all 11 iems, that will cover every ones requirements.

1. XBA-1,

2. XBA-2,

3. XBA-3,

4. XBA-4. , (1,2 ,3 and 4 BAs per ear respectively )
and XBA-1ip, XBA-2ip, XBA-3ip, XBA-4ip. their respective mic variants .

9. Sony XBA-BT75 - Bluetooth

10. Sony XBA-NC85D - active noise cancelling

11. Sony XBA-S65/B - water proof, rugged

after the ex1000's success, XBA-4 is bound to grab attention with its 4 BA drivers per ear.
 
He! We both have our eyes set on the XBA-4 :D

But that low impedance means it would have bad synergy with many sources - at least that's what I've read.
 
Me ? .....am satisfied with Miracle ! :p

also it does not have a removable cable ( or does it ? )

its good though that sony is again concentrating on high end audio , i hope that sony brings back quaila 010 and R10 like products.
 
Starting with EX-600 / 800ST / 1000, Sony seems to be back in the game. I hope their BA models do well.

PS: I am talking about "caught the eye and attention", not necessarily about buying it :p
 
another news, X3 has been "frozen " ( as they call it ).

it probably wont ever see the light.

though they mentioned they will develop another dap in future.

he is what their representative at head-fi said "



Letter to all people who support and love FiiO
Dear all net-friends, customers and media:
First, I want to say thanks to all people who love and support FiiO, especially those friends who give us precious advice during the process of developing FiiO X3. But at the same time, I want to say sorry to all friends, because development of X3 has been frozen.
There are several reasons of freezing the development of X3. First: the supplier. FiiO X3 using master chip and relative Firmware which are supposed to be provided by our suppliers ,but the supplier cannot give us qualified software within the limited time . Though we have granted them some days extension, they’re still unable to give us any predictable schedule. Secondly, the system is not so delicate in the present time. Take these reasons into consideration, we decided to freeze the X3 now , really sorry for that, hope all friends can understand us.
During the process of developing X3,in one hand, We want to express our thankfulness to all those who support and interact with us,

on the other hand ,I want to express the apologies to all. We don’t perform all promises because half of the resources of project X3 not all controlled by us. We will learn from this lesson. Before making a commitment, we will be preparing for everything and will not let all dear friends down.
As we all know these are normal problems that will be appeared during the development of projects. But this problems can not make us stop our plans on the development of DAP. Now we try to find more new resources and open platforms such as Android in order to develop more satisfactory products.
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The Original head-fi Post
 
Guess they just saved me a $200 spend :p. I was this close to ordering it if it came out. Oh! well! There's at least ZO v2 to order :)

Also, Clip Zip has been pulled off Amazon. Guess that saves me another spend :p
 
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