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Heir Audio - The Appreciation Thread - Page 263

post #3931 of 7211
12/8/12 at 10:35am

Well it seems I was trying to be too adventurous with my design and it is technically not possible frown.gif

 

Back to the drawing board as I have only got a few days before I get my impressions done and need to have made a decision and had it approved as feasible.

 

I hate this bit as I am completely lacking in artistic skills. confused_face.gif

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post #3932 of 7211
12/8/12 at 11:33am

Why don't do a Wizard Design?  ( or better let do one )
 

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post #3933 of 7211
12/8/12 at 12:37pm

Or just keep it simple and timeless...better than getting a hasty tattoo imo

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post #3934 of 7211
12/8/12 at 1:00pm
I think some of the nicest Heir designs are just the plain wood faceplates. It showcases just the beauty of the wood without a lot of distractions, if you are into that.
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post #3935 of 7211
12/8/12 at 1:07pm

I like a lot of the wood designs...but I'm not sure its for me.

I like the glow in the dark that Wizard posted a couple of days ago.

I'm hoping to come up with something unique along that lines of something that represents Music\Audio or Prog Rock. The problem is that it needs to be quite simple for the design to be technically feasible.

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post #3936 of 7211
12/8/12 at 3:54pm

I haven't seen anybody here get the PCB designs...I think that actually looks pretty damn cool.

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post #3937 of 7211
12/8/12 at 3:58pm

kckc has PCB plates - they look great. 

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post #3938 of 7211
12/8/12 at 5:03pm
I have ordered a 4A with PCB face plate design and in glow in the dark green. I wonder how this combination will look.
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post #3939 of 7211
12/8/12 at 6:44pm

I just ordered my new Heir 8.a the other day and can't wait for them to come in.  This is more of a tech question. Does anyone drive there IEM's directly from the output of there DAC and not use a headphone amplifier. My DAC drive amplifiers directly without a pre-amp and does not have a headphone jack. My DAC has RCA outs at 3.6 volts RMS with max of 10 volts RMS at 50 ohms.  It also has balanced outputs 7.5 volts.  Is this just too much power for the IEM's to take?  Will my volume at 1 on the volume control just be too loud. Just curious.

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post #3940 of 7211
12/8/12 at 6:54pm

What is the sensitivity of the Heir Audio 8.a?

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post #3941 of 7211
12/8/12 at 9:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FullCircle View Post

 

    What you don't know or see is the "back story" regarding the "bad fits."   When we get an e-mail regarding "poor fits" we always ask for photos of the CIEMs inserted....

 

    At least 90% of the reportedly "bad fits" are due to improper insertion technique. Trouble is, a lot of folks come here first, report a bad fit, then come to Heir Audio second....

 

    Usually proper insertion technique takes care of the issue, and we are rather grateful for this, as shipping fees are a heavy burden on the customer, and time is not something we have a lot of.

 

 

   As far as rejecting a lot of impressions, well that is a symptom of another problem all together.

 

   1) CIEM impression taking technique etc, is not really part of the Audiology curiculum (neither is spelling, luckily for me)

       

       I imagine a lot of students would "balk" at the idea of going to school for 8 years, obtaining the tittle of Doctor, and be informed that they will be assisting in the sell of head phones, when all the while they had invinsioned roaming the halls of a hospital, while wearing the "robes" a "doctor."

 

 

    2) Although technically one should be able to say, "I need a deep impression, beyond the second bend, for a Full Shell hearing aid.... " and that would be sufficient...

 

       The trouble is:

 

        A) Full Shell hearing aids make up a small percentage of hearing aid sales - they are considerd "old technology" and  are not in high demand by the public

        B) The purpose of a "tight" fitting heairng aid was to stop feed back propblems. Today, hearing aids are loaded with active DSP that can stop feed back through phase cancelation, so the requirement/need for tight fitting Full Shell Hearing aids has really "died out."   In short, it could be said, due to technological advances, "older audiologist" have gotten spoiled, and newer audiologist don't really even comprehend the need for tight fits.

 

 

 Thus, over a period of time, due to the progression of hearing aid technology, the impression technique for CIEMs and hearing aids has become two distinct techniques. Are audilogist fully aware of this.... "No."  Are they concerned?  Probably not.  Back in the day when I practiced audiology, over a period of 7 years, I did one set of impression for CIEMs.  As the demand rises, so will awareness, but until then, there will be a lot of continued "back and forth" between customers, audiologist, and CIEM manufactures/distributors.

 

 

Then there is also another problem: 

 

Education - For example in the country of Singapore, there is NO audiology program. The country of Taiwan, has 2, the country of China, has essentially ONE that I would consider a program on or near American standards and that is in Hong Kong. Thailand, One program and that is a BS level program. Australia I think has two programs (MS), New Zealand I think has One program. Maylasia, I do believe has 2 - 4 i can't really remember off the top of my head.

 

So in other words, the amount of highly trained audiologist around the world, is at best, a very tiny group.  (But have No fear, the IEM is Here)

 

 

 

Wizard

If there is a vendor who is more outspoken than you, I'd like to know him. It's evident that the business you're running is also your hobby. That is what I call a "dream job." Congratulations to you. beerchug.gif

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post #3942 of 7211
12/8/12 at 9:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by earlinarizona View Post

I just ordered my new Heir 8.a the other day and can't wait for them to come in.  This is more of a tech question. Does anyone drive there IEM's directly from the output of there DAC and not use a headphone amplifier. My DAC drive amplifiers directly without a pre-amp and does not have a headphone jack. My DAC has RCA outs at 3.6 volts RMS with max of 10 volts RMS at 50 ohms.  It also has balanced outputs 7.5 volts.  Is this just too much power for the IEM's to take?  Will my volume at 1 on the volume control just be too loud. Just curious.

That's probably orders of magnitude more power than what an IEM can handle. It might work on the lowest settings but you'd have very little play in the volume before getting too loud. I'd be more concerned with the 50ohm output impedance. That's higher than the 8.A which results in a damping factor of less than 1 (ideal is 8 or more), which will definitely not take full advantage of those killer subterranean lows the 8.A is known for.
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post #3943 of 7211
12/8/12 at 10:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by yancem View Post

Ok, so I have been enjoying my wonderful 4.A's for a little over a month and am looking to expand my music library.  Up until now most (all? would have to check) of my music is in MP3 format but now that I have higher end headphones, I'm wondering if I should start purchasing FLAC or WAV music.  Is there a big difference in quality and how much does the source come into play?  I may upgrade my source at some point, but right now I'm using a Clip.  If I stay with MP3, I can buy from Amazon which is cheaper and more convenient (their could player makes it easy to get music from computer to computer and is a built in back-up) but I spent a lot of money on my 4.A's and want to make sure I'm getting the best out of them.  Thoughts?


Something else to consider is the quality of the recording itself, as in how much attention to detail was paid in the studio by the recording engineer. There are a lot of very well recorded albums that sound fantastic even at 320kbps, but unfortunately a great number more that sound average at best even if it's a high resolution 24/192 file. A good idea would be to look on the music threads on head-fi (here's one thread which may help: http://www.head-fi.org/t/115573/best-recorded-albums-of-all-time )and ask questions/do some searching to get a list of albums that are generally considered to be excellent recordings and go from there. For instance, if you happen to like Steely Dan, you'll be quite happy. A prominent recording engineer whose work most seem to appreciate is Steve Hoffman http://www.stevehoffman.tv/  (his site will give you a list of everything he's worked on).  It's another approach to the garbage-in garbage-out axiom.

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post #3944 of 7211
12/8/12 at 11:12pm

do Heir Audio offer other kind of shipping fees? I think 55usd for international is extreme expensive. Since I live in Las Vegas and it is not far from San Diego (Heir's USA office), to pay 55usd for the shipping fees, it is totally ridiculous.

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post #3945 of 7211
12/8/12 at 11:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by king8888 View Post

do Heir Audio offer other kind of shipping fees? I think 55usd for international is extreme expensive. Since I live in Las Vegas and it is not far from San Diego (Heir's USA office), to pay 55usd for the shipping fees, it is totally ridiculous.


You should look closer into the facts before blindly ranting. Their customs are shipped from China not the USA.

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