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New Portable Amp By DECWARE - Page 5

post #61 of 121
9/24/08 at 8:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by yashicaman View Post
Louis249,

Give it time to burn in. Headphone, speakers, amps, preamps, and some say wires all need time to burn in. I usually don't worry about burn in. It will happen with use, but there might be something said for accelerating the process. I should burn in my latest headphone buy (Yuin PK1). It sounds like these ear buds have potential, but they need some time playing to realize this potential. Enjoy the Zen Head.
Yashicaman, yes. I agree what you said, all the things need a long time to burn in. I can find lots of differences between today and two days ago with the same song. I trust that will be good after a time.

Enjoy your Zen Head too.
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post #62 of 121
9/24/08 at 9:06am
Here are the photos that I shot.

Cowon A2 with Zen Head.


My Shure SE310 close up.


SE310 too.


One more photo.


The best cable that I never heard before by stevenkelby. As you can see, all the things are well joined together.


The Canare F12 plug.


Close up to Zen Head, as you can see, I need to turn the volume in this way to drive my SE310.


My bag for carrying outside, if go to school, I put this pag into my backpack.


Enough places for putting the awesome cable and A2, also the Zen Head.


Close up to the green light, I wish I can change to the blue one, it must be awesome.


Close up to the phones part.


C&C XO and Zen Head together.
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post #63 of 121
9/24/08 at 2:15pm
I know I'm confusing threads at this point ,but with the preceeding photos I felt compelled to pass this on(I know, "Get on with it,already!) One of the easiest ways to bundle your DAP to your portable amp is to just use one of the sports armbands designed for the indiviual players. Slip the player into it's compartment close up the armband tight enough( you may have shorten the armband or re-route it some) to hold the player snug to the amp & bingo, bango, boingo you're done. If you use different players this arrangement is the easiest way to accomplish things because the armbands were specifically designed for the player you will be using it with. While this arrangement is, not be the most elegant way to bundle things it will work quite well without expending much brainpower which can now be used for more important things.( Like describing how the Zen Head sounds, which I plan on doing down the road a bit ). Happy listening.
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post #64 of 121
9/24/08 at 11:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wuwhere View Post
HiFlight,

Since you have both P3 and ZH1, I'm curious how their SQ compares. TIA.
This is perhaps premature, as I have only a few hours on my P3, and still have the same opamps that were installed by iBasso, but at this point, I prefer the sound of the ZH1 over the P3. Maybe because of the superb crossfeed. At any rate, the soundstage and imaging of the ZH-1 is better than that of the P3.

The P3 is an amp that will take lots of time to discover the optimum combinations of LR, buffer, and ground opamps.

It is the ultimate in customizable portable amps, no question about it.
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post #65 of 121
9/24/08 at 11:46pm
I just began getting audible distortion on my ZH-1, so I removed the battery and measured the remaining voltage. It was 5.91 volts. I didn't keep track of the hours.

I replaced the alkaline with a Ultralife lithium cell. It was a tight fit but I was able to get the battery cover on without problems.

Distortion GONE!
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post #66 of 121
9/24/08 at 11:48pm
Duplicate post removed.
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post #67 of 121
9/25/08 at 12:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by HiFlight View Post
This is perhaps premature, as I have only a few hours on my P3, and still have the same opamps that were installed by iBasso, but at this point, I prefer the sound of the ZH1 over the P3. Maybe because of the superb crossfeed. At any rate, the soundstage and imaging of the ZH-1 is better than that of the P3.

The P3 is an amp that will take lots of time to discover the optimum combinations of LR, buffer, and ground opamps.

It is the ultimate in customizable portable amps, no question about it.
Thanks HiFlight.

I look forward to your future observations and experiences write ups of the P3.

As a jazz listener, I highly value soundstaging and imaging, of which the ZH1 excels at. I am also attracted at the flexibility that the P3 offers. If the P3 can come close to the ZH1's soundstaging and imaging with the right opamp, it would be my choice.
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post #68 of 121
9/25/08 at 3:38am
HiFlight, Thanks for the tip on the Ultralife battery . I've been leaving it on & playing music through it at medium volume to burn it in while I've been at work since about Monday aternoon when I got my Zen Head . Tonight when I got home from work I heard the audible distortion as soon as I put my headphones on. I don't have any new 9v batteries (That's not going to happen again, or at least I won't admit to it) lying around . I wasn't sure that Lithium 9s existed & I definitely prefer them so this is welcome info. The crossfeed is a very nice feature & tastefully implemented in this amp from what I've heard from it so far. I actually picked this amp over the RSA Hornet because of the omission of crossfeed in the Hornet. I much prefered the sound of my starter HeadRoom amp w/ the crossfeed on to it being off . At some point I may decide I like it off , but I like having the flexability to choose. I can't believe I didn't buy some spare 9volts as I knew I would be burning the ZH in. What a 'maroon' !
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post #69 of 121
9/26/08 at 1:25am
Louis249,

Great photos, thanks. Just spent an hour listening to music for a class that I'm going to teach tomorrow and I used my AKG 271s headphones. They are really fine. Perhaps the smoothest, most accurate phones I've heard. Well worth having in one's arsenal. I like them for music and film (and I like that they are closed so I can take 'em anywhere and everywhere). They work well with the Zen Head, btw.

I also was amused to see in one of the dvd's that I was examining, the musicians were all wearing AKG headphones. How cool is that? I'm wearing AKG and the people on the dvd are wearing AKG. Maybe there is something to AKG. After much thought, my favourite cans are the AKG 271s and then Grado 325i's which is a very different animal. Now that I have favourites, it's time to buy another set of cans. Hmmmm....AKG 601? 701? I dunno. I'll wait a few months before I acquire something else.

Cheers!
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post #70 of 121
9/26/08 at 3:58am
Well tonight I've finally been able to spend some quality listening time w/ my Zen Head and anyone who thinks that they are going to get this quality of sound straight from their player by upgrading their headphones may be seriously deluding themselves. If you listen to classical music you need to hear this amp. Right now I'm listening to a re-issue of Hyperion release (on their Helios label) of Three English Ballet Suites . Firstly , the staging is simply wonderful. The different sections of English Northern Philharmonia stand in relief of each other as if there is an ongoing melodious dialogue amongst themselves. I guess if was trying to describe what soundstaging was to someone who hadn't been exposed to representative recordings I think it might just be easier to let them listen as I pointed out things to listen to. Before I forget, the lack of solid state hardness in the upper frequencies is very natural sounding. At this point describing more of what I'm hearing is becoming too much of a chore because these nice little tidbits of music are distracting me. I'll end by saying the amp has stayed totally out of the way of the playback of a very well recorded & fun recording. Can you tell I like this amp ?
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post #71 of 121
9/27/08 at 12:58am
Well spoken, Pod...well spoken. The Zen Head is a classical lovers dream!
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post #72 of 121
9/27/08 at 2:52am
So HiFlight.., have you started thinking about an easy way to remove those tight fitting Ultralife batteries we're using . I didn't use common sense and wrap a piece of ribbon around it. Nevermind , it was'nt as difficult to remove as I would have believed it to be. It's always good to check things out though. While I'm here I'll add a few more observations that I didn't mention last night. One of the things I like about the ZHs presentation of sound is that played instruments have 'body' or 'weight' to their sound even if the music is being played softly. More often than not w/ most equipment this level of detail does'nt become evident until you start increasing the volume which then ends up obscuring inner detail when the orchestra plays at forte levels. Steve has done a real nice job w/ this amp & when I decide to get a pre-amp for my main audio system I may have to see what he has .
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post #73 of 121
9/27/08 at 11:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by yashicaman View Post
I also was amused to see in one of the dvd's that I was examining, the musicians were all wearing AKG headphones. How cool is that?
Cheers!
I never heard them, so this is by no means about whether they're good or bad, but the main reason AKG is used in studios is their 600ohm impedance, which prevents overload on the hp outputs of the mixer boards.
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post #74 of 121
9/28/08 at 4:34pm
I may have been a little hasty in judging that I needed to switch the gain setting on my ZH to high in order to drive my Beyerdynamic DT770/PRO 80ohm hps sufficently enough. I kept forgetting to check the volume setting on my Zune. It appears that the sound is considerably more dynamic if the Zune volume is at maximum( I really wish someone would figure out a way to get a true line-out from these players & as I keep saying I don't see why someone hasn't figured out how to make the headphone out function as one. Isn't that how the original Imod worked?). I've since moved the gain switch back to its original setting. Another thing that I've considered is, could the increase in volume have anything to do w/ the change to the Ultralife lithium 9v ? The volume adjustment range(on the amp) appears to be a bit more flexable now. The tonality of this amp is wildly good . While listening to a live performance recording of David Wilcox(Live Songs & Stories) I can clearly detect the sweet treble of his James Olson guitar has the same tonal character of James Taylor's guitar (which in many instances is also an Olson* guitar) (* forgive me if I've misspelled the last name as the name is a Luthier's bread & butter). That's all for now. Good listening everyone. "No, Stephen" he says to himself "You are not upgrading your headphones". Well not yet anyway
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post #75 of 121
9/28/08 at 11:45pm
tube?/? but looks good, any reviews??
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