Delivery of Headstage Arrow HE 4G - Page 6

I got my Arrow 4G in the mail today, looks fantastic. I'm giving it a charge before I test it, willl be interesting to hear the new treble gain feature. I will report back as I'm sure many others will as they get theirs delivered.

Excited for your impressions!

 

Highly recommend others do the same to their batteries.  Also do a full discharge before the next recharge cycle too.

 

May I ask when you placed your order?

 

Yeah it was June 14 last year. I noticed the postmark is from Hong Kong on 28-01-12 (rather than the US) which may explain why I got mine first, being in Australia.

 

Initial impressions on a 7th gen IPod Classic:

Soundstage has been expanded considerably, no distortion of really high end treble. The treble gain gives really noticeable sparkle without sibilance. The +9db gain nearly blew my head off, I don't think I'll need to utilise it with IEMs at all. The mids are really crisp and clean, no muddy mashing of frequencies to speak of, this will be a mid-head's dream I would think. On flat setting the bass is quite neutral (as in, my Merlins aren't rumbling more than usual) but on high setting the bass has a great deal more rumble, more resonance. The "tube like sound" is not entirely evident to me right now, but but I'm not listening to rock music which may be a factor. Either way I'm loving the depth and 3D quality it's putting on the bottom end, with max setting. What can I say, I love the bass. 

 

Pretty much every preset EQ on the iPod is pure suck, the Arrow makes it into a potent clarity monster. There is so much more frequency separation, potency of sound and most of all it is very clean to the ear where before the standalone iPod would be prone to distortion. I'll post more when I have heard more.
 

 

 

Edited by phntmsmshr - 2/3/12 at 5:36am

A couple of pics:

 

Congrats! Excellent to hear your initial impressions. Robert's stuff is always worth being patient for, in spite of how long it may take sometimes (which can be loooonnnngggggggg.....)!! 

First Post, varyV: I've been a long time lurker, like a lot of others, but decided to post today because I wanted to give something back to the community that had helped me so much in my "audiophilic" journey, albeit vicariously. I am currently playing a setup based on an ipod touch 4g+just audio uha-120 and UM Miracles and it sounds brilliant. I remember previously promising Justin from Just Audio a proper review, but never got the time to do so....but here I am buying another amp for the miracles because I needed the bass boost. Anyways, I have an incoming amp from Robert and will be posting reviews to give back to the community, just as they had helped me. I love music, but I'm more of a layman listener who's acquainted with the "audiophile" lexicon, but no audiophile personally; so my point of view would equate to that of a tech admirer, but not to that of a guru~.

 

Anyways, thanks to a bunch of members who have helped me acquire my stash of earphones/amps/pmps (there's a bunch to name, so I'll do it another time). I'll try and post a detailed review of the arrow, when it arrives at my place. Will also try and give impressions on the earphones/players/amps that I had acquired/sold/auditioned during the time (includes UM miracles, Just Audio uHA 120, MTPC, Westone 4, Hifiman 272, Hifiman 601, Cowon J3, UE TF 10, Jays a-Jays etc...blah, blah).

 

Cheers to a great community,

Vin

Just received my Headstage 4G.   Great build quality and can't wait to try it out.   Hope the wait is worth it.....

Today on the 6 of Feb 2012 I have received my arrow 4 G , it was exactly 5 months waiting time since 6. Sept  2011.

i am very happy to get my arrow 4 G.

build Quality : is better than my arrow 3 G , the cover from my arrow 4 G now are from aluminium plate as well .

                       My arrow 3 G the cover are from plastic .

 

My first impression is :

Source : IPhone 4 S

cable : mini to lod whiplash cable elite Twag 2

 

high : is more open and extended than my arrow 3 G

 

mid : very sweet and lush and forward compare to my arrow 3 G

 

bass : more clean and low bass , compare to my arrow 3 G is in mid bass region.

 

soundtage : is wider and the depth is much better ath my arrow 3 G

 

separation : is better than my arrow 3 G, you can hear the placement from the orchestra better than my arrow 3 G

                   

 

Note :  I do the setting from  the bass position in I , for my best sound quality.

 

this is my personal impression and arrow 4 G sound so good direct from the box , after burn in i will post again 

 

it is worth it  for long  waiting for my arrow 4 G.

Edited by rudi0504 - 2/6/12 at 12:08pm

W00T!! Mine came in today as well. Will post impressions after a charge.

I sincerely hope that the wait has been worth it for the 4G, as you guys have been extraordinarily patient waiting upwards of 6 months to take delivery.

For comparative purposes, has anyone compared their 4G to the TTVJ Slim, ALO Rx MkII or a similar size amp?

Cheers.

Can't compare to  the TTVJ or the ALO Rx, but out of the box, the Arrow 4g sounds a tiny bit harsher than a semi burnt in Just Audio uHa 120, which is not necessarily the same form factor, but is one of the smaller amps in the "matchbox" form. The highs are sufficient with the 0 setting, I makes them more tingly and II is a little loud. Bass is very well done, though. Among all settings, it is bouncy and punchy, as it gets progressively more prominent but did not distort on my UM Miracles on any level. Personally, I prefer this bass to the j3+zo 2 combo that I was using earlier. The mids are very smooth as well. As of now, I haven't done extensive listening because I've been busy with school. Will listen some more towards the weekend and report. Also, bear in mind that these are initial impressions on an out-of-the-box amp with no burn in.

 

Edit: Oh yeah...One more thing: the soundstage is BIG. It feels like the intstruments are very cleanly separated and if you close your eyes, you can virtualize them at different distances/positions around you. Very nice.

Edited by varyV - 2/8/12 at 9:31am

so if I place the order through headphonia.com 

 

will the 4G be shipped immediately?

Who could say? He would surely have had a significant backlog of orders to get through, plus it would depend on how large his production run was. He promised to answer emails faster so maybe put it to him before you drop your money.

 

 

Received mine today, shipped from El Dorado, CA.

 

Uber-minimalist packing: G4 in an envelope, and a USB cable. No instructions or data sheet!

 

Build is lovely. The thing is much tinier than I had thought. 

 

As for sound, I've tried it with my Macbook into AKG K702's. Cannot hear much difference (other than color added by switch settings), but that did verify it's operating correctly. The bass and treble boosts are both subtle and agreeable. Anyway, I got this to go with my little iPod shuffle, and so will try that later at home for a real test.

 

So, it was about an 11 month wait for me. But it appears Robert is out of the weeds now.