Officially my search for a perfect DAP has ended with the iMod. Red Wine Audio iMod is quite a piece of work. Vinnie Rossi’s masterpiece and one that all portable audiophile should have.
It’s the fourth day for me now. Day in day out, night and day I am totally hooked with my new toy that I fell asleep in the living room with my cable TV watching me. So engrossed was I with iMod that I have no second thought about selling off my zune, Rio Karmas and PCDP.
Suffice to say, my iMod rig has exceeded my expectation and she’s still burning in the two high-end Black Gate Non-Polarized NX-Hi-Q coupling capacitors.
Surely and ultimately my iMod has outclassed my previous DAPs and PCDP by miles leaving them behind in dusts. For the record I have owned a Creative ZEN Neeon, Rockboxed iPod 3G, 4G and 5.5G (all Lineout), two Rio Karmas, zune and Panasonic SL-CT720 (Lineout). My zune has superb synergy with my RSA Tomahawk, but the treble energy is tiring me up a bit in the long run. So does my Panasonic PCDP, quality was great but there’s so much glare in the music that it hurts. And Rio Karma’s warmth sometimes felt like a veil.
So what’s so great about Vinnie’s iMod? I will make this as simple as possible. For a start there’s unequalled mind blowing transparency which I have only heard on a full sized Audiophile rig – yes iMod is like a huge open window to the music – it does not impede or veil the presentation. It’s so transparent that it is easy to forget the equipment used to get to the music – and that’s how enjoying music should be, forget the rig and listen!. Some of my previous DAPs and PCDP does offer good transparency through the lineout (headphone out from the zune), but that was until I experienced iMod and I realized how much I have been missing. Now that I have a chance to compare my iMod with my other rigs, they sounded narrow and compressed.
On the other hand, I believe iMod actually does not have its own sonic signature – it all depends on the type of amp being used and in my case it’s an RSA Tomahawk. Finally my TH is getting what she deserves, the freshest, cleanest, purest signal attainable from a portable source – the result is blissful. Being a source provider iMod served well in this regard – iMod does not tamper, add or colour the output. iMod does not add unnecessary treble energy like what my PCDP and zune did, nor does iMod enhance the quantity of bass like my Rio Karma. To ensure that I get the best out of it I only use Rockbox and FLAC V4 with no tweaking whatsoever on the Rockbox and I am rewarded with fidelity level listening which could scale up with full home grown rig (I don’t have any home rig but I did have opportunities to sample a few )
iMod also excels in giving that extra space feel to the music, everything felt so spacious – even through my highly critical ER-4P/S I was able to immerse myself into the space. With spaciousness comes superb staging and my TH responded superbly in portraying the Soundstage. Previously with my other DAPs there was Soundstage and they were already good, but they lacked that sense of spaciousness. Same with separation, TH already quite capable of multilayered separation became even more efficient. All this ended up offering the listener imaging experience that many DAPs fail to offer in full, but not iMod
My absolute favorite part is how iMod helps my TH in presenting the highs. Notably ER-4P/S treble energy/sparkle is still there but it’s never piercing now – it’s so lush and feels very velvety. Like I said earlier the iMod itself will not enhance the treble extension unnecessarily, but it does synergize well with TH to capitalize on ER-4P/S treble prowess – and keeps them in check so as not to singe my eardrums. The rest of the sound spectrum is pretty much similar, again iMod does not alter they way they sounded, iMod merely laid a sterile foundation for the amp to manipulate. Bass and mids is as deep, strong and sweet as how a TH would produce.
There no glare or hardness that I can pick to bitch about. Even Pitch Shifter’s “Landfill” cymbal attacks sounds inviting now. Dynamics and transients sounded right – not over orchestrated, not lacking - effortless.
What makes iMod even special is the absolute black background – TOTAL silence! This is paramount for detail junkie like me. I want to hear them all! I want to hear the guitar picks, the inhale and exhale of vocals, drum beat effects, decays , nuances etc…..even imperfection in the recordings – nothing can be hidden anymore with iMod > TH > ER-4P/S combo. Practically I am doomed with some of my badly recorded and mastered albums. I listen heavily to Shogazer Indie bands and for those in the know, My Bloody Valentine, CURVE and Joy Division earlier records are marred with bad production – iMod revealed even more imperfections from those albums and surprisingly I was able to cope up with it once I accepted the fact that they were meant to sound like that. Learn to compromise and go ahead with enjoying music. Record imperfection adds spice and flavor to the experience through iMod.
Even my 80s Metal collection sounds great now, specially that very rare Num Skull CD which was never released in CD format. Num Skull “Ritually Abused” was officially released only in vinyl format and the one that I have is a bootlegged dub from the LP. The fun part is I can audibly hear vinyl screeches LOL!.
So if I have to bitch anything about iMod what can I pick? Well running lossless on Rockbox is a total pain in the butt. With the stock 700 mAh iPod battery I can only score no more that 5 hours run time. That’s solved with 1200 mAh battery that I purchased through eBay and now I get almost 8 hours of continuous play. Another thing is the legacy old skool look of iPod 4G, when everyone else around me brandishes glossy iPod 5.5G, zunes and Sony daps, my iMod looked so out of place – but hey who cares.
Well, is iMod worth it? Hell yeah. If you rely heavily on Portable rig you should get one. iMod + amp is still highly pocketable. But if you demand even more fidelity then you gonna have to go SiBurning’s path and start lugging around a bomber rig of DAP/Optical/DAC/Amp (which I plan to do as well)
Pics:
Credits:
- To my lovely wife and kids who understand my geeky hobby
- SiBurning for the Bomber Rig pic
- scottiebabie for loaning me his iM716, KSC-75 and ES-7 for auditioning
- Fellow iMod owners who inspired me to get my iMod (you guys rock!)
It’s the fourth day for me now. Day in day out, night and day I am totally hooked with my new toy that I fell asleep in the living room with my cable TV watching me. So engrossed was I with iMod that I have no second thought about selling off my zune, Rio Karmas and PCDP.
Suffice to say, my iMod rig has exceeded my expectation and she’s still burning in the two high-end Black Gate Non-Polarized NX-Hi-Q coupling capacitors.
Surely and ultimately my iMod has outclassed my previous DAPs and PCDP by miles leaving them behind in dusts. For the record I have owned a Creative ZEN Neeon, Rockboxed iPod 3G, 4G and 5.5G (all Lineout), two Rio Karmas, zune and Panasonic SL-CT720 (Lineout). My zune has superb synergy with my RSA Tomahawk, but the treble energy is tiring me up a bit in the long run. So does my Panasonic PCDP, quality was great but there’s so much glare in the music that it hurts. And Rio Karma’s warmth sometimes felt like a veil.
So what’s so great about Vinnie’s iMod? I will make this as simple as possible. For a start there’s unequalled mind blowing transparency which I have only heard on a full sized Audiophile rig – yes iMod is like a huge open window to the music – it does not impede or veil the presentation. It’s so transparent that it is easy to forget the equipment used to get to the music – and that’s how enjoying music should be, forget the rig and listen!. Some of my previous DAPs and PCDP does offer good transparency through the lineout (headphone out from the zune), but that was until I experienced iMod and I realized how much I have been missing. Now that I have a chance to compare my iMod with my other rigs, they sounded narrow and compressed.
On the other hand, I believe iMod actually does not have its own sonic signature – it all depends on the type of amp being used and in my case it’s an RSA Tomahawk. Finally my TH is getting what she deserves, the freshest, cleanest, purest signal attainable from a portable source – the result is blissful. Being a source provider iMod served well in this regard – iMod does not tamper, add or colour the output. iMod does not add unnecessary treble energy like what my PCDP and zune did, nor does iMod enhance the quantity of bass like my Rio Karma. To ensure that I get the best out of it I only use Rockbox and FLAC V4 with no tweaking whatsoever on the Rockbox and I am rewarded with fidelity level listening which could scale up with full home grown rig (I don’t have any home rig but I did have opportunities to sample a few )
iMod also excels in giving that extra space feel to the music, everything felt so spacious – even through my highly critical ER-4P/S I was able to immerse myself into the space. With spaciousness comes superb staging and my TH responded superbly in portraying the Soundstage. Previously with my other DAPs there was Soundstage and they were already good, but they lacked that sense of spaciousness. Same with separation, TH already quite capable of multilayered separation became even more efficient. All this ended up offering the listener imaging experience that many DAPs fail to offer in full, but not iMod
My absolute favorite part is how iMod helps my TH in presenting the highs. Notably ER-4P/S treble energy/sparkle is still there but it’s never piercing now – it’s so lush and feels very velvety. Like I said earlier the iMod itself will not enhance the treble extension unnecessarily, but it does synergize well with TH to capitalize on ER-4P/S treble prowess – and keeps them in check so as not to singe my eardrums. The rest of the sound spectrum is pretty much similar, again iMod does not alter they way they sounded, iMod merely laid a sterile foundation for the amp to manipulate. Bass and mids is as deep, strong and sweet as how a TH would produce.
There no glare or hardness that I can pick to bitch about. Even Pitch Shifter’s “Landfill” cymbal attacks sounds inviting now. Dynamics and transients sounded right – not over orchestrated, not lacking - effortless.
What makes iMod even special is the absolute black background – TOTAL silence! This is paramount for detail junkie like me. I want to hear them all! I want to hear the guitar picks, the inhale and exhale of vocals, drum beat effects, decays , nuances etc…..even imperfection in the recordings – nothing can be hidden anymore with iMod > TH > ER-4P/S combo. Practically I am doomed with some of my badly recorded and mastered albums. I listen heavily to Shogazer Indie bands and for those in the know, My Bloody Valentine, CURVE and Joy Division earlier records are marred with bad production – iMod revealed even more imperfections from those albums and surprisingly I was able to cope up with it once I accepted the fact that they were meant to sound like that. Learn to compromise and go ahead with enjoying music. Record imperfection adds spice and flavor to the experience through iMod.
Even my 80s Metal collection sounds great now, specially that very rare Num Skull CD which was never released in CD format. Num Skull “Ritually Abused” was officially released only in vinyl format and the one that I have is a bootlegged dub from the LP. The fun part is I can audibly hear vinyl screeches LOL!.
So if I have to bitch anything about iMod what can I pick? Well running lossless on Rockbox is a total pain in the butt. With the stock 700 mAh iPod battery I can only score no more that 5 hours run time. That’s solved with 1200 mAh battery that I purchased through eBay and now I get almost 8 hours of continuous play. Another thing is the legacy old skool look of iPod 4G, when everyone else around me brandishes glossy iPod 5.5G, zunes and Sony daps, my iMod looked so out of place – but hey who cares.
Well, is iMod worth it? Hell yeah. If you rely heavily on Portable rig you should get one. iMod + amp is still highly pocketable. But if you demand even more fidelity then you gonna have to go SiBurning’s path and start lugging around a bomber rig of DAP/Optical/DAC/Amp (which I plan to do as well)
Pics:
Credits:
- To my lovely wife and kids who understand my geeky hobby
- SiBurning for the Bomber Rig pic
- scottiebabie for loaning me his iM716, KSC-75 and ES-7 for auditioning
- Fellow iMod owners who inspired me to get my iMod (you guys rock!)
