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XIN SuperMicro-IV VS The BIG Gun - A comparo to remember - Page 2

post #16 of 47
7/23/07 at 2:27am
Hi EFN,

I'm curious about the look of your SuperMicro. Is it in the standard casing that is described on Xin's website as the black opaque one? I'd been a bit put off by this amp because of the rather fragile glossy casings he offered, but the textured black casing on your one looks far more suited to rugged use.
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post #17 of 47
7/23/07 at 3:02am
EFN's case was a standard black case before his modding. Also, I don't think the case is all that fragile but I also don't know what you mean by rugged use.
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post #18 of 47
7/23/07 at 3:20am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ADD View Post
Hi EFN,

I'm curious about the look of your SuperMicro. Is it in the standard casing that is described on Xin's website as the black opaque one? I'd been a bit put off by this amp because of the rather fragile glossy casings he offered, but the textured black casing on your one looks far more suited to rugged use.
Yeah. SuperMicro-IV sucks big time when it comes to look. Without a doubt the ugliest looking amp in existence. But audio bliss is not all about look no?

My case has a dark history. It was the standard plastic case when I received fron Xin. 2 months ago I had a terrible accident and one of the things that broke was my SMIV . The front cover broke into several pieces with some damage to the power switch as well. I repaired evrything piece by piece and the result as seen in the pics, quite rugged looking eh. "ome paintwork and it's all done
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post #19 of 47
7/23/07 at 7:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by EFN View Post
Yeah. SuperMicro-IV sucks big time when it comes to look. Without a doubt the ugliest looking amp in existence. But audio bliss is not all about look no?

My case has a dark history. It was the standard plastic case when I received fron Xin. 2 months ago I had a terrible accident and one of the things that broke was my SMIV . The front cover broke into several pieces with some damage to the power switch as well. I repaired evrything piece by piece and the result as seen in the pics, quite rugged looking eh. "ome paintwork and it's all done
EFN, this amp is really good of easy listen and easy to carry.....really a supermicro, is i got a opportunity sure i will modd one...so happy can listen to it yesterday.
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post #20 of 47
7/23/07 at 7:38am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by akabane@drjackel View Post
EFN, this amp is really good of easy listen and easy to carry.....really a supermicro, is i got a opportunity sure i will modd one...so happy can listen to it yesterday.
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post #21 of 47
7/23/07 at 8:34am
yup agree with akabane...1 batery..can drive dt990..so loud..even my audiotrak drhead cant even drive my akg240s nicely
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post #22 of 47
7/23/07 at 2:28pm
as usual EFN comes in with another great review!!!
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post #23 of 47
7/23/07 at 11:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rioven View Post
yup agree with akabane...1 batery..can drive dt990..so loud..even my audiotrak drhead cant even drive my akg240s nicely

Maybe you modd the Amp haha...might improve and match your headphone...
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post #24 of 47
7/24/07 at 2:41am
Thanks for the review EFN.
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post #25 of 47
7/24/07 at 5:04am
Nice review EFN. The 12 braid Canare looks yummy too!

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post #26 of 47
7/24/07 at 5:22am
stooooooooooooop, my wallet cry ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
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post #27 of 47
7/24/07 at 7:04am
So in my head i'm thinking... how would the Supermicro IV compare to a Little Dot MK III? Or how would the Reference compare?

I have a feeling i'll be selling the LD MKIII rather soon...
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post #28 of 47
7/24/07 at 8:20am
Thanks a bunch for the review. It is stuff like this that makes me reconsider my upgrade plans (a good thing).
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post #29 of 47
7/24/07 at 11:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by KurtW View Post
The SMIV uses a voltage multiplier chip that takes the 1.2v in and gives 5.5v out. You can verify this from Xin's website but I also verified it by looking at the circuit. That is why it can drive 250 ohm headphones, but it is no longer as clean as a battery, and RMAA tests will show this. Also that is why his Reference, which has 4 batteries instead of the voltage multiplier chip, sounds and measures better. I proved this to myself by building a similar version of both. But the one battery version does sound very good and you can't beat the size. The version that I built with 4 batteries and without the multiplier chip does sound better, but when I compared it to a much more expensive home amp with a very good source and headphones, it showed its limitations. But a portable amp usually is used with less than state of the art sources (I use mine with an iMod and lossless files which is very good but not world class). Also worth mentioning, the SMIV does have a different sound than the Hornet M, for example, and some people may prefer one over the other depending on their tastes. The Hornet is quicker sounding, the other one more spacious and a little relaxed in comparison but without sounding slow. One really should listen to both and make a decision based on that.
Some excellent info here. Thanks Kurt.
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post #30 of 47
7/24/07 at 2:14pm
Kurt, I read your excellent post. Sounds like your recommendation to someone looking for a Xin amp would be to buy the Reference over the SMIV if size and batteries are not important but SQ is?
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