The diary entries of a little girl nearing 30! - Page 102

Quote:

Originally Posted by dealsaddict 

Watched a few mass effect 3, definitely looks good, I'm a fan of bioware, lol but the game is so long, I don't have enough dedication to finish it most of the time. ie Baldur's Gate II. Anxiously waiting for Diablo 3.

I love that game so much.  I've played it though several times from Candlekeep to Throne of Bhaal with the Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod that imports all the BG1 stuff into BG2 and makes it one continuous game.  I pretty much always play on "insane" too.  Maybe that makes up for some of convenience tweaks I use that some people might consider cheating.  Unlimited stacking, giving myself a Bag of Holding at the start because I think limited inventories are stupid in RPGs,  taking whatever joinable NPCs I want for their personalities and stories and then changing their classes to whatever I want, etc...

I've also played and beat it completely solo on insane from Candlekeep to ToB too.  Once as an assassin and once as a sorcerer.  I know I tried once as dual-class ranger/cleric but I forgot if if I got stuck in ToB or just stopped and never finished that character.

Its not Bioware, but Oblivion is something that I've started way more times than I've finished.  IMO it might as well just be a sandbox program.  Its pretty so-so on its own but mods bring it up to God-Tier, especially Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul.  It seems to have damn near as much content as the whole original game and greatly improves its mechanics.  That's pretty much why I've purposely ignored Skyrim so far.  I expect it end up like that too.  In another year or so I'll see what kind of mods are out for it.

Also, while not as glamorous, we can't forget about the hundreds (thousands?) of bugs that the Oblivion unofficial patch fixes.  Yes, in a complex scripted RPG with thousands and thousands of variables and flags bugs are pretty much unavoidable.  No, it is not acceptable for you to cut short your development cycle and never fix them....

Woo hoo my Audio-Technica ATH-EW9 Wood Clip-On arrived today. I'm off to the post office to pick them up.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/22/mass-effect-3-standard-edition-contains-reversible-femshep-cover/

Yay my JDSLabs O2 arrived :D The unit looks much nicer than I anticipated (the 3d renders on the JDS website don't really do the nice finishing justice.)

I'll give listening impressions as I go along. Very excited :3

hey Turok dude, lol looks nice!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by turokrocks 

 

Mass Effect 3 standard edition contains reversible FemShep cover!

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/22/mass-effect-3-standard-edition-contains-reversible-femshep-cover/

Nice, to hear you got yours, gain at 2x and 6.5x ?  Can't wait for more impressions :)
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_recording 

Yay my JDSLabs O2 arrived :D The unit looks much nicer than I anticipated (the 3d renders on the JDS website don't really do the nice finishing justice.)

 

I'll give listening impressions as I go along. Very excited :3

Haha sorry, I had dinner. Here's what I can say:

Build: The JDS labs build is very nice. Solid aluminium casing, everything fits together nicely. Again I can say that the 3D renders don't really do it justice, so here's a picture for you to peek at.

My one complaint about the build is that the 3.5mm socket feels a little stiff when inserting a jack, and possibly contributing to this is that the socket move slightly when using them, as if the face plate has a little room for the sockets to wiggle. It's a relatively minor issue though, and honestly what I would expect out of a amp built on a DIY design. The 3.5mm headphone jack I'm very pleased with since I don't have to do any adapter swapping between my phone and this amp. The 3.5mm line in input is a little clunky - I'm using a 3.5mm to RCA adapter to go to my Music Streamer II+. This makes me ardently hope the ODA has a preamp out and RCA line ins.

The whole unit is about the length and width of my wallet and the thickness slightly thicker than a VHS tape. It makes me scared that some people here might not know how thick a video tape is. I can't imagine using this as a pocketable headphone amp, but it seems the right size to toke around with my 11" Macbook Air and rock it out in a library or a park with the battery.

Sound: This is the real treat. while I am not the biggest believer in amps making a huge difference in sound, I have to say I am pretty darn impressed by this amp. It is very noticeably cleaner then the Schiit Asgard it replaced, the sound being grain free, rich and full of authority. Everything sounds smooth, detailed and clean. What is most striking to me is the sense of authority it has lent to the bass of my lighter cans - the Z1000 sounds nice and liquid on it, with deep bass extension. It is something I suspect I missed since I originally bought them, when I had a Black Cube Linear to demo them on. The AD900 sounds clean and sweet on it as well. I have to say that the lack of grain has made both the Z1000 and the AD900 a lot easier to listen to, compared to when they would have drier, granier treble on the Asgard. Lastly and most happily, my old RE0 which was the start of my Head-fi hobby sounds, well, essentially as good once paired with the O2 as any other high end IEM I've bought since then. 

I don't know enough or have heard enough amps to say whether or not this amp has a particular sound - I am going to take it at face value that the designer of the amp was going for a neutral amp with low distortion and harmonics, and that is what I seem to be hearing. If I had one word for it, it would be: clean. 

Now here's the one troubling note. Yes, the JDS labs O2 has a 2.5x and 6x gain switch. I'm finding that on the high gain setting, there is noticeable distortion. This isn't the high volume kind of distortion, but fluttering noises I'm getting at normal volumes. I'm running off a 14vac adapter. Now, I don't have any high impedance cans to test the O2 with so I don't know if this is an issue that is happening because I'm trying to use high gain with low impedance headphones (I don't know enough about electronics) or because of some fault. Since the amp seems to have more than enough headroom at 2.5x with all my headphones (I'm not even going to 12 o clock on the volume knob on any of my gear) I won't really use the 6x gain mode, but I have sent off an enquiry to JDSLabs about it.

Edit: Reviewing the instructions that came with the amp (duh) it seems I may be causing distortion because at 6x gain and the 2v + output of the Music Streamer is overloading the gain stage. Oops!

I was twittering to Mike from Headfonia about the O2, and he pointed out that the JDSLabs O2 he had also had degraded performance on the high gain mode (which is what prompted me to try it), though I do not know if it is quite as bad as what I am hearing. He also pointed out that the Epiphany Acoustics model has a 1x / 2.5x gain switch, and that the 1x gain setting was even better. Again, I can't confirm this, and I don't even know enough about gain to really comment on it - just something to note if you are thinking between the JDS and the Epiphany model. I went with JDSLabs because they are supposedly the more reputable company, but the Epiphany does include a local power adapter for around the same price. All I can say is that on the default 2.5x gain mode I'm more than pleased with the performance. It's dead quiet, even on AC power, with no hum or hissing.  

Overall for $150 I think anyone with some nice headphones owes it to themselves to give this a go and hear nwavguy's statement with their own ears so to speak. Again, I don't know enough about electronics or amplifiers to say one way or the other whether the technical aspects of his implementation are correct, but I do appreciate his transparency in designing and selling this amp. And I appreciate the amp's own transparency very much. :3

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuppetFace 

I'm curious about what you're referring to when you say "JDS is the more reputable" of the two companies. As far as I know Epiphany is relatively new, and there hasn't been much feedback about them yet? Or am I missing some incident or something? I'm really just curious because I went with Epiphany.

 

I was initially told "the end of January," then "sometime in February," and now "the beginning of March" for the estimate of when my O2 would be ready. From what I've read, Oliver seems to be having some issues getting the latest batch finished, but now it's supposedly sorted out or something.

 

Nice review by the way, a_rec.

Thanks :3 Yes, I did mean that there seemed to be less information about Epiphany, whereas JDS has a pretty solid reputation from their Cmoy amps. I don't think there is anything necessarily to be said against Epiphany though. If I had the money to burn I'd just order both O2's and compare them, as I'm curious abou this whole gain thing.

I essentially got my O2 in a week with normal shipping. John from JDS was even nice enough to let me change my shipping method from priority (uninsured) to first class (insured shipping) and refund me the $2.50 (!) difference. So I was very happy with them and I would order the ODA from them too if they decide to offer a build of that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuppetFace 

Oh, and a big lewd gesture in the air to US customs for what is going on day three now of their holding my package of Final Audio IEMs. I guess they're trying their hardest to see what fees they can think up to charge me.

Lewd gesture tariff: +4500%

OK these are my early observations concerning the ATH-EW9. When I first unpacked them from the shipping box I was shocked how little they were. I knew they were little from dimensions given on various sites but it never hit home until I had them in front of me. Packaging is pretty utilitarian, simple small brown box with a plastic window displaying the clips. Inside we have an instruction manual in various languages and the cable is hidden underneath behind the cardboard liner displaying the clips, the cord itself is a j cord. This is the first time I've ever used a j cord and I can understand why so many people don't like it, it'll take some getting used to. The cord itself is of good quality and is rather short with a straight plug but it also has an extender which terminates in a right angle plug. Without the extender there's enough cord to plug your DAP and pocket it in your front shirt pocket. With the extender there's enough cord to run down to around your hip. When I first saw the extender I was disappointed and thought it would add excessive weight to the clips. I haven't had a lot of time with them, maybe 30 minutes tops today, but early impressions thus far is even with the extender there doesn't seem to be any overly excessive pulling on the clips when worn. Speaking of weight these clip-ons are incredibly light as in feather light. You can put them on and easily forget you have them on. No real accessories to really speak of the exception only being a soft plush carry case for the clips. The case is a soft case and I highly doubt it could protect the clips from a hard knock. That being said it's a nice touch none the less. The general appearance of the clips housing is beautiful. Audio Technica is known for making some aesthetically nice products and these clips are no exception. The back clip mechanism itself if a thin metal with a soft rubber that acts as a buffer to keep the metal from digging into your skin when the clips are worn. I wouldn't call the clipping mechanism fragile but I wouldn't class them as bulletproof either and I'll be exercising some care with them when clipping them on. Isolation on these clips is non existent and sound leakage can easily bother your neighbor in a quiet environment. They're pretty much like a set of ear buds in that respect.

To my ears the sound is pretty much spot on compared to the reviews I've read. Bass is pretty light and the general sound signature is rather lean and aggressive. It's a pretty bright sound signature and the treble is very nicely defined. I'm noticing a slight frequency spike in the upper mids with female vocals but from the little time I've had with these the mid to high transition seems pretty good overall. Detail overall I would class as very good considering it's a clip on and guitars in grunge music work particularly well with this clip-on. Electronica as well as drum n bass sounds terrible on this clip-on because the bass is so anemic and from the short time I've had with this clip I'm guessing this product will shine only with certain music and certain genre's. A bass head would yank these clip-ons off in under 5 minutes and comment there's no bass what gives. Not much of a 3D effect and layering can be rather bad compared to my other gear, truth be known the presentation is very 2D feeling to my ears. Right now I'm worried about fit. As indicated above I only had a short time to fiddle around with them but I'm fearing I may be one of the few who may have fit issues. I've clipped them on and I'm noticing the sound lacks body and the treble sounds rather tinny. When I put my fingers on the sides of the clip housing though and lightly press in the sound warms up and the well defined highs open up and the bass especially begins to fill up a little more. Tomorrow I have the day off from work I'll try monkeying around with them a little more in the evening and report back. Towards the end of my lunch break after monkeying around a bit with positioning I was able to get a slightly more warmer sound without me pressing on the housing so we'll see what happens from here on in. I really like the aesthetics of these clips so I don't want to give up on them. I'm guessing some careful positioning and a little practice will hopefully solve my fit issues.

Great reviews, guys!
 

VHS or Beta?