digiZoid ZO2.3 Impression & Discussion Thread - Page 4

This is what i'm also experiencing using clip+ rockbox, westone 4, and Z02.3, the soundstage is greatly reduced both in High gain and Lowgain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by b33r 

Well I've burned mine in for about 10 hours now, and I'm not seeing any improvement. I just cannot understand the tremendous reduction in soundstage. The difference is like night and day. When I'm listening with my DBA-02 only, I can hear everything just fine, sounds coming in from the left and right just like they should, soundstage is nice and airy. Once I plug in the ZO, everything gets compressed into the middle. All the finer details that I used to hear from the left and right get pushed to the back where I can no longer distinguish clearly, and the DBA-02's sparkle disappears. I've tried everything from lowering the setting to the minimum, LOD cable on low-gain setting, headphone out on high-gain, nothing seems to work. I tested it with my brother's UETF10 as well, and got the exact same result. I can't remember whether it was like this before I sent it back to digiZoid for the revision as I had only had it for a week until I learnt about the recall.

 

Is anyone else experiencing this? Or could my unit be a lemon?

I just received my ZO2.3 the other day, but have yet to even listen to it. Hopefully I'll have some time tonight to test it out.

ZO2.3 with the DT880 250 ohms is a fantastic pairing. I prefer the way it sounds with the DT880's than with my Ultrasone Pro 750's - but then I think the DT880's are a better headphone that just sound even more amazing with more bass quantity.

Quote:

Originally Posted by b33r 

Well I've burned mine in for about 10 hours now, and I'm not seeing any improvement. I just cannot understand the tremendous reduction in soundstage. The difference is like night and day. When I'm listening with my DBA-02 only, I can hear everything just fine, sounds coming in from the left and right just like they should, soundstage is nice and airy. Once I plug in the ZO, everything gets compressed into the middle. All the finer details that I used to hear from the left and right get pushed to the back where I can no longer distinguish clearly, and the DBA-02's sparkle disappears. I've tried everything from lowering the setting to the minimum, LOD cable on low-gain setting, headphone out on high-gain, nothing seems to work. I tested it with my brother's UETF10 as well, and got the exact same result. I can't remember whether it was like this before I sent it back to digiZoid for the revision as I had only had it for a week until I learnt about the recall.

 

Is anyone else experiencing this? Or could my unit be a lemon?

+1

I just received my zo2 and it also seems like some detail is missing. Maybe they just dont pair well with ultrasone? Im using mine with the pro 900 and have the exact same issues. Also when turning the contour settings toward max level (between orange and red) the sound becomes incredibly distorted. Is this normal or will it go away with burn-in??

Have you turned off all EQ? I can go all the way to red on my Pro 750's, Aktimate Mini speakers and DT880's and not hear any distortion. I prefer to stick in between green and yellow though.

EDIT: Loudness of the DT880 250 is just fine. I set the ZO2.3 to high gain, my Xonar Essence STX to 15 and Foobar2000 to either max or a few dB lower. Lots of room to go higher. I'm using the RCA outs on the Xonar into 3.5mm for the ZO, then use the headphone out on the ZO for the DT880's. I use speaker mode when I want to use the ZO, so it means with this setup I can't use Dolby Headphone, but I don't mind, when I want to play games I don't want that much bass anyway.

Ya all eq is off. People have told me the distortion is caused by not enough power or amplification thats why we see people double amping their zo2's. What source are you using? Im going from my iphone 4 to zo2 to pro 900 and anything past yellow contour is crazy distortion.

edit: Just saw your edit but ya I guess this is caused by the iphone? Idk... anyone else have this problem when using their iphone as the source??

The ZO is capable of driving headphones pretty well AFAIK. On Anythingbutipod one of the reviewers was saying it can drive the HD650's. It could be the iphone, is it possible for you to switch up sources to a PC, AV receiver or anything?

It could be a problem with the unit itself, but hopefully not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arnotts 

Have you turned off all EQ? I can go all the way to red on my Pro 750's, Aktimate Mini speakers and DT880's and not hear any distortion. I prefer to stick in between green and yellow though.

 

EDIT: Loudness of the DT880 250 is just fine. I set the ZO2.3 to high gain, my Xonar Essence STX to 15 and Foobar2000 to either max or a few dB lower. Lots of room to go higher. I'm using the RCA outs on the Xonar into 3.5mm for the ZO, then use the headphone out on the ZO for the DT880's. I use speaker mode when I want to use the ZO, so it means with this setup I can't use Dolby Headphone, but I don't mind, when I want to play games I don't want that much bass anyway.

Great, that means I know I won't regret buying a pair of DT880 Pros (250 Premium just seems a little much at $100 extra).

Unfortunately it seems like the zo2 by itself cannot power the pro 900s out of an iphone. I have a LOD coming tomorrow so well see if that helps any. I tried it again with my triplefi10 and the distortion is gone, this is what I expected when I first tried the zo2, It really does make the triplefi10 sound good.

Are you actually using high gain mode? Remember the light turns PINK in high gain mode, not purple. Rotate the switch up and hold it for about 5 seconds and it'll turn pink. I don't mean to make you sound stupid or anything, but it's been an easy mistake people have made in the past!

Haha ya Im positive its in pink. That was the first thing I checked, I guess theres just not enough juice for the ultrasones. With them id have to turn the volume up to about 8/10 but with the triplefi I only need less than 1/2 volume.

Hmm. That doesn't make sense to me since the Pro 750's should actually be slightly harder to drive than the Pro 900's. My Pro 750's can go to red without any distortion, although there's too much bass.

I hope it's not a defect with yours :O

Theres definitely a difference and I know im in high gain. Purple is low gain at max volume pink is high gain. Ive been in pink this whole time, It seems theres a problem with my amplification but untill someone else tries using the zo2 with full sized headphones out of an iphone or ipod I wont know for sure.