The Audiophiles' Lounge

K.O.Kiki

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/pono-player-review-a-tall-refreshing-drink-of-snake-oil/1/

No Hold button/function :pac:

FaulknersFav

^ A bit silly!! Ha it seems that it doesn't know whether it wants to be a portable player or not??! The box looks pretty snazzy though.

ebjarrell

I'm just gonna save up my change, and sell a few of my children, for the new Sony NW-ZX2. They've never really let me down thus far.

celticsfan

Just a quick question hopefully someone here might be able to help me out... Does anyone know of a place in Dublin City Centre that will take some ear impressions for ciems? I'm a universal iem guy mostly but am gonna go ciem..

Thanks

Zapp Brannigan

celticsfan wrote: »

Just a quick question hopefully someone here might be able to help me out... Does anyone know of a place in Dublin City Centre that will take some ear impressions for ciems? I'm a universal iem guy mostly but am gonna go ciem..

Thanks

These guys. Got some done in December and Jonathan was an absolute gent. Cost around €45 if I remember correctly.

celticsfan

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

These guys. Got some done in December and Jonathan was an absolute gent. Cost around €45 if I remember correctly.

Will check these guys out for sure thanks!! 45eur seems very fair too...now just gotta start saving for the ciem:D

Gheadphone

Just ordered the Ultrasone Sig Pros today http://www.head-fi.org/products/ultrasone-signature-pro

Now i just need to wait........

krustycustomer

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SMS-Audio-Over-Ear-Wireless-Headphones-Silver-Black/dp/B007ELUW06

50 cent headphones, 90 pounds down from 299, worth it? missed the bargain laert for the logitech ue6000's but thinkin of getting them anyway for 67 pounds on amazon

Xenji

My HiFimeDIY Sabre USB DAC is after dying, any ideas for a replacement for about €100?

grumpynerd

can anyone give me advice about ripping cds to my laptop? Im going for wavs right now but on playback they sound much worse than the original cd.....is there any option?

Custardpi

Why did you go with WAVs? What prog are you using? Personally I'd go with FLACs, lossless but compressed so much smaller than WAVs. I've ripped lots of CDs to that format using both DBPoweramp & Foobar2000 & had no problems. I think iTunes might have a problem with FLACs though so if you're an Apple user you might have to look at other options like ALAC or alternatives to iTunes.

K.O.Kiki

grumpynerd wrote: »

can anyone give me advice about ripping cds to my laptop? Im going for wavs right now but on playback they sound much worse than the original cd.....is there any option?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV

It is impossible for a WAV to sound worse than a CD.

What you're hearing is the difference in audio decode between your CD player & computer's DAC.

Morf

Think I mullered my Xiaomi Pistons 2.

Are the Piston 3s a good replacement?

Still killing it in that price range?

Ta.

johncash

Has there ever been any meetups organised? Would love to try some differing headphones some time.

My collection:

Headphones

HD650 with ZMF lamb earpads
ZMF x Vibros
HD485 with HM5 pleather earpads
Koss porta pros

(http://)imgur.com/CMoYvlo

remove the brackets

Amps/DAC

(https://)imgur.com/BWsGyTD,XDEDsFN#1

E09K/E07k
JDS Labs C5D

grumpynerd

well the research said wavs are as near to cd quality as possible, but to me they sound off the pace, like 20 per cent less than listening to a cd directly. I tried to avoid all compression and reconstruction formats, but they all sound bad from aiff to wma pro to wavs ripped with eac.....

is there anyway to centralise my music collection on my laptop without losing quality?

Custardpi

WAVs are an exact copy of the CD content, the information should be exactly the same. They take up a huge amount of space though, so codecs such as FLAC which use lossless compression are better as they give you a smaller size without any loss in audio quality. If they sound bad that could be to do with your playback setup rather than the codec used.

colossus-x

grumpynerd wrote: »

well the research said wavs are as near to cd quality as possible, but to me they sound off the pace, like 20 per cent less than listening to a cd directly. I tried to avoid all compression and reconstruction formats, but they all sound bad from aiff to wma pro to wavs ripped with eac.....

is there anyway to centralise my music collection on my laptop without losing quality?

Yes you need to understand how the music file is stored on the CD. It's like this: track1.wav, tarck2.wav, track3.wav.. etc etc

When you copy those over to your computer you get an exact copy ie track1.wav, tarck2.wav, track3.wav.. etc etc

It's just like copy/paste any file, you just get another duplicate copy.

If you are experiencing a loss of quality it couldn't possible be because of the music file as I've just demonstrated the file is exactly the same as the original so there must be some other variable that accounts for the loss in quality. Such as, different speakers, headphones, software player , sound card on your computer etc

colossus-x

You can centralize your collection and get an exact copy by copying over everything in their original .wav format , no loss of quality.

HOWEVER, if you convert them to .FLAC format you will get the exact same audio quality but he .flac files will take up exactly 1/2 as much space on your hard drive as the .WAV's , so you loose NOTHING, and you SAVE a lot of hard drive space.

grumpynerd

Im quite surprised really. for me cd audio is barely adequate as it is, Im starting to look into ordering higher resolution stuff from those niche companies like reference recordings or chesky....

For me aiff, wma pro, wav, mp3 320, and flac (i just tried it) sound different from each other and all sound different from playing a cd on my laptop.

I'll have to look into comparing wav files with audacity to see.

For me it seems logical that playing a cd will sound different to playing a wav file, even if most ears can't tell the difference.

cd-opticaldrive-soundcard-headphones jack

wav file on 1tb internaldrive-soundcard-headphones jack

It's a different process surely?

Custardpi

Assuming the equipment used is exactly the same the idea that a WAV will sound different from a FLAC or AIFF is like saying that a sandwich tastes different depending on whether you eat it off a red plate or a blue plate. They're all lossless formats. It's possible that playing a CD could sound different alright due to the transport being noisy or whatever but that's nothing to do with the information stored on the disc.

colossus-x

grumpynerd wrote: »

Im quite surprised really. for me cd audio is barely adequate as it is, Im starting to look into ordering higher resolution stuff from those niche companies like reference recordings or chesky....

For me aiff, wma pro, wav, mp3 320, and flac (i just tried it) sound different from each other and all sound different from playing a cd on my laptop.

I'll have to look into comparing wav files with audacity to see.

For me it seems logical that playing a cd will sound different to playing a wav file, even if most ears can't tell the difference.

cd-opticaldrive-soundcard-headphones jack

wav file on 1tb internaldrive-soundcard-headphones jack

It's a different process surely?

You are just a grumpy troll. You've just explained back to us the very same thing that we just explained to you. Wasting our time.

grumpynerd

how am I trolling? I genuinely can't get any feel for how audiophiles cope with converting cds to a laptop library of music. People just seem to be saying things which aren't really true such as wav & flac sound 'the same as cd audio'...

If wavs will only sound so good playing from a hard drive, is that something you just have to accept?

Is sacrificing a bit of sound quality for convenience just the way it is?

If I order some dvds with hi res versions of albums, will they sound better if played from a hard drive?

PPC

Were you using the same player to play the CD and WAVs?

I find a huge difference between using VLC and Vox, to the point where I thought my DAC was broken as I was using VLC for playback.

pleasant Co.

The kicks I get from this forum at times :P

colossus-x

Ya, ya gotta laugh sometimes

grumpynerd

yes same program, wmp, and settings. Just a massive difference between playing a wav from hard drive to playing a cd on my laptop. There's a huge amount of hiss with the wavs- to do with how the albums were recorded, some more hissy than others.

Foobar plays the wavs better, to the point that they sound ok, but playing a cd still sounds best, and using my old sony cd walkman sounds best of all.

You can use checksum and null tests to say the wavs are identical between cd and harddrive, but the process of listening to music completely retranslated by a laptop cpu is really different than listening to a cd directly, and to say theres no difference between 'lossless' formats is nuts- they each sound different to each other...

kingbob387

that's some golden ears you have there mate

Custardpi

If you want to have a good computer audio experience the only option is to get an external DAC, the internal one in a laptop is never going to measure up, whether playing CDs or audio files. There's a huge amount of new products on the market in the past few years. My own setup consists of Foobar playing FLACS on an old Toshiba laptop which connects to a Schiit DAC & a NAD amp. Sounds great in my opinion & plenty of others who've heard it agree.

K.O.Kiki

Even a simple Behringer UCA202 would do the trick:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-UCA202-U-Control-low-latency-Interface/dp/B000KW2YEI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1436352102&sr=8-4&keywords=usb+dac

Xenji

Picked up a Muse Audio X5 off Ebay for €12 as a stopgap to replace my broken HiFimeDIY Sabre, I am amazed by it for the price, it actually compares very well to certain points of my Audioquest Dragonfly.

Morf

Ordered Piston 2s and 3s.

Bases are covered.

K.O.Kiki

Ordered Sony XBA-H1 based on this group review, also a cheap Sony Bluetooth adapter.

Bluefoam

I've had the sennheiser momentum 1 and the Bose noise cancelling headphones since last Christmas... The benefits of both have been immense... The Momentum because of their general use and the Bose for flights and their noise cancelling... Just makes me realise the best pair of headphones for me would be the Momentum Overear Wireless... They'd cover me for all uses...

Very tempted to dump both for a new investment

marko93

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Ordered Sony XBA-H1 based on this group review, also a cheap Sony Bluetooth adapter.

Where did you order the H1s?

K.O.Kiki

marko93 wrote: »

Where did you order the H1s?

Amazon UK, just over £75 with free shipping

marko93

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Amazon UK, just over £75 with free shipping

When they arrive, please post your thoughts and any comparisons you may have! They look fantastic.

K.O.Kiki

marko93 wrote: »

When they arrive, please post your thoughts and any comparisons you may have! They look fantastic.

Mini-review will have to wait, my music HDD has packed it in

marko93

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Mini-review will have to wait, my music HDD has packed it in

Well that is one super inconvenient HDD put of interest, what will you be running it through?

_CreeD_

Hi Guys,

Anyone here tried an UpTone Regen (http://uptoneaudio.com/products/usb-regen)? Thinking of getting in for a Xmas order. My main aim is isolating my DAC as much as possible from the input source, the signal 'cleaning' is a plus so I'm looking for a little more than clipping the USB power pins. My DAC is galvanically isolated anyway so it may be mostly OCD on my part, hence the question .

Cheers.

Boom_Bap

I've started to take a look around for a set of in-ears that I can use for running/cycling, work, and short distances (have Monster Inspiration's for everything else).
For the last 6/7 months I've been using a pair of Senns CX 475's which have been grand, but I have the age old problem now of only one bud working.

I went into a brick n mortar today just to see what was there. There were way too many Senns to even start deciding on what to start looking at.
I started looking at other options and ones that grabbed my eye where these Monster iSports -> http://shopmonsterproducts.co.uk/*/iSport-In-Ear/iSport-Strive-Blue/38IA03V2000

They are bang on my budget, look to get decent reviews, fit securely into the ear and cancel out noise. Waterproof and have a mic controller thing as well that might come in handy for using while running to adjust volumes.

Anyone have any experience with them? I have a pair of monsters already and dig them alot. Or any other suggestions? I'd like to try an over ear pair for running so I'm open for suggestions on them as well, bt weary of them just jumping off my head.

K.O.Kiki

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I've started to take a look around for a set of in-ears that I can use for running/cycling, work, and short distances (have Monster Inspiration's for everything else).
For the last 6/7 months I've been using a pair of Senns CX 475's which have been grand, but I have the age old problem now of only one bud working.

I went into a brick n mortar today just to see what was there. There were way too many Senns to even start deciding on what to start looking at.
I started looking at other options and ones that grabbed my eye where these Monster iSports -> http://shopmonsterproducts.co.uk/*/iSport-In-Ear/iSport-Strive-Blue/38IA03V2000

They are bang on my budget, look to get decent reviews, fit securely into the ear and cancel out noise. Waterproof and have a mic controller thing as well that might come in handy for using while running to adjust volumes.

Anyone have any experience with them? I have a pair of monsters already and dig them alot. Or any other suggestions? I'd like to try an over ear pair for running so I'm open for suggestions on them as well, bt weary of them just jumping off my head.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-SHQ5200-10-ActionFit-Lightweight/dp/B00BB7MS2Y/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1441662090&sr=8-4&keywords=philips+sports+headphones

Probably decent enough for the gym.

Boom_Bap

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-SHQ5200-10-ActionFit-Lightweight/dp/B00BB7MS2Y/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1441662090&sr=8-4&keywords=philips+sports+headphones

Probably decent enough for the gym.

I'm always a little suspect of Phillips headphones, they tend to lack a little umph in the sound department. Also when I see something described as 'powerful bass' I always get the feeling they are trying to mask the lack of sound quality by juicing up the bass. I'm open to correction on that though.

K.O.Kiki

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I'm always a little suspect of Phillips headphones, they tend to lack a little umph in the sound department. Also when I see something described as 'powerful bass' I always get the feeling they are trying to mask the lack of sound quality by juicing up the bass. I'm open to correction on that though.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/philips-actionfit-shq5200-review

Ah, should probably give them a miss.

Boom_Bap

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

http://www.trustedreviews.com/philips-actionfit-shq5200-review

Ah, should probably give them a miss.

Cheers. I dipped into Harvey Normans today and seen they have a decent selection of Senn's sporty in ears. Didn't have a chance for a proper root but I reckon that is the direction I'll take.
I think it was a pair of MX 686G SPORTS that I seen cheaper than the monsters but similar specs. So I might go for those.

MagicMarker

I have these and find them great for the gym, they come with a rubber casing that you can wrap around your ear, though I don't know why they don't show this in the pictures, they'd be unusable without them imo.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soundmagic-E30-BK-SoundMAGIC-E30-Earphones/dp/B005HJ38OO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441891045&sr=8-1&keywords=soundmagic+e30




Can anyone recommend a budget-ish usb soundcard/amp? The headphone socket on my laptop is ****ed.

marko93

MagicMarker wrote: »

I have these and find them great for the gym, they come with a rubber casing that you can wrap around your ear, though I don't know why they don't show this in the pictures, they'd be unusable without them imo.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soundmagic-E30-BK-SoundMAGIC-E30-Earphones/dp/B005HJ38OO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441891045&sr=8-1&keywords=soundmagic+e30




Can anyone recommend a budget-ish usb soundcard/amp? The headphone socket on my laptop is ****ed.

Schiit Fulla might be down your alley.

marko93

Lads, before I throw 200 quid at HD25 Aluminium, any other suggestions?

ebjarrell

marko93 wrote: »

Lads, before I throw 200 quid at HD25 Aluminium, any other suggestions?

Spend another €100 and get the Momentum 2.0.

marko93

ebjarrell wrote: »

Spend another €100 and get the Momentum 2.0.

Should of said, 200 is my limit, but thanks for the suggestion.

ebjarrell

marko93 wrote: »

Should of said, 200 is my limit, but thanks for the suggestion.

Check head-fi dot org. It's an audiophile forum and it has classifieds. You can get some pretty great deals but what you get will be used. I got my Westone IEMs and Fischer Amp IEMs and Momentums from there.

Also, check out the Audio Technica ATR-MSR7 and the Soundmagic HP150.