Your Custom Text Here
Piccolo's machining is tight
A package from Ω's #1 patron, AnakChan, has put me to work this afternoon. First, I shot the Grado GR10 earphone for a Headfonia review whilst plugging my ears with John Denver and The Alan Parson's Project. Driving it all was the all-new Cypher Labs Picollo.
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The AK240 is a great-sounding player. It is an expensive player. Inner Fidelity's Tyll thinks it is revolutionary. Its price certainly is.
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Here are various balanced armature earphone speakers arranged and labelled by forum.ru fan, Hardcorist.
Cymbacavum, who pointed this out, says this:
“Those poor earphones…”
the Stage Series family
Cymbacavum's details Rhines Custom Monitors's Stage Series in straight, engaging English. (You won't find its like anywhere else.) I had only a few minutes to sit down with Rhine's Stage Series and custom earphones at Fujiya Avic's 2014 Spring Headphone Festival, but was very impressed.
Mr. T's explains his favourites:
“In the end, I found myself reaching for the Stage 3, Stage 4U, and Stage 5 the most.
With regard to details, I found the 4U and 5 to be most detailed. The 4U possesses almost a savant-like focus on the midrange and possesses neutrality comparable to the Stage 3, but with greater transparency in the mids. At the top of the food chain, the 5 is designed for more razzmatazz while retaining a lot of detail.
If the 4U is the evolution of the 3, then the 5 is the evolution of the 2, but perhaps that’d be simplifying things a bit too much. The Stage 5 is really a mix of the fun U-shaped signature and slight midrange warmth of the Stage 2 with the accuracy and focused forward projection of the Stage 3 and 4U.”
The entire article can be digested twice in ten minutes. There's no fluff. Check it out.
Rhines Custom Monitors - Stage Series
Then check out Rhines Custom Monitors.
Back in black
Lil' ohm doing a review is one thing. This time, I get the word out via Headfonia.
Headfonia: Vorzüge PURE II - single ended perfected
Be sure to check out Vorzüge's website for more information.
Fore: MS-AK120; aft: MS-AK100
Long-time readers will know that I disapprove of iRiver's handling of the AK series. The AK100, which has been on the market for just over a year and a half, feels old. In Japan, pristine models are selling used for anywhere from 23.000¥ to 35.000¥, which is 40% - 55% off MSRP. (By contrast, a used iPod of the same vintage sells used 75-85% of its new price.)
Read moreYesterday, the Noble Audio K10 arrived, at long last, to my doorstep. The balding postman that carried them in walked away with a sizeable chunk of money for tariffs, bless his heart. UPS, the company he represents, took 7 days to deliver the package from China to Japan. EMS would have taken three. Thank god for private business and competition and all that.
Read morePoor Lachy filmed this excellent 10:25 review with a cold. Nevertheless, his work is as clear and concise as it is free of distractions. It is also the first review of the XBA-H3 that I personally endorse.
Check out Lachlan's YouTube channel, and his webpage.
Four days ago, headfi moderator, warrenpchi, published the beginning of what looks to be a legendary Astell & Kern shootout in the already legendary AK120/100ii thread. He went to great lengths to volume match each device by ear.
Yes, by ear.
“This actually took MUCH longer than I anticipated. It seems simple, but you’d be amazed how long it can take to subjectively match levels between five devices using 6 different tracks of varying genres and file qualities.
I began by going through all of the test tracks above to find a comfortable volume level on the AK120 - the device that I am most familiar with. It had to be loud enough that I felt confident in hearing the most intricate of details, but not loud enough that I would be subjected to too much discomfort.”
Warren, it IS simple. Calibrate each device to a single, pre-recorded frequency-neutral tone. Use a split cable, not your ears. And by all means, don't bring out a bunch of songs to do it.
Matching volumes by ear is cognitive dissonance. Not only is it not possible, it is wasteful of effort, time, and, when published, wasteful of headfi bandwidth. At worst, it is deceptive.
Myriad problems ensue even when matching via line outputs. The most insidious is current variability between devices, which can render differences in volume between tracks normalised to the same mean volume levels.
Why? When not fed ample enough current, headphones will return various anomalies, including the loss of contrast, and sound pressure in certain frequencies, all of which affect perceived volume levels.
Hire the best ears in the world. Give them the rest of their lives to match volumes. They will fail. It is neither possible - nor an expedient use of someone's life. It is far quicker and accurate to simply split the output between a single pair of earphones and a sound card. Match the volumes against a frequency-neutral calibration signal. Voila!
Subsequent volume differences indicate output defaults. They cannot be normalised across devices. I won't even get into the problems of various stimuli that trick the ear to thinking it hears one thing when it hears another.
I wish you luck Warren, but your test has already begun on the wrong foot.
Source: Mini Astell&Kern DAP Shoot-Out
Wish Wizard a happy 42nd Happy Birthday by hitting up Noble Audio for a 20% savings on their high-end custom and universal inner ear monitors. Sale ends in ~21 hours from this post. (Sorry, I found out about this a bit late.)
You can keep up with the sale at Noble Audio's Facebook page.
And while you're waiting for your customs, be sure to check out Ω's take on the earphone that launched their brand, the awesome IEM 5,0.
Tsukuba, Japan
