Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Portable Source Gear › noob asking for help?colorfly c4 any good with jh13pro?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

noob asking for help?colorfly c4 any good with jh13pro?

post #1 of 16
1/24/12 at 5:40am
Thread Starter 

hi all,

 

this is my 1st post and just like some help.

 

just got my jh13pro a couple of months ago and looking for a good dap to go along with it. tested the ipod classic and touch (lastest gen) but just doesn't work for me. somehow everything sounds cramped and boxed-up to me. thinking of getting the colorfly c4 but not sure if its a good pairing. any inputs will be appreciated and many thanks.normal_smile%20.gif

 

Reply
post #2 of 16
1/24/12 at 5:49am
Thread Starter 

probably should mention i listen to pop and rock and classical.

Reply
post #3 of 16
1/25/12 at 8:57am
Thread Starter 

seriously no one?

Reply
post #4 of 16
1/27/12 at 2:08pm
Am listening to that exact combo right now and sound seems fine with no hiss but some background humm in quiet passages. However like with all the Chineese hiend players the software and format support leaves a lot to be desired. I'm following the iBasso dx100 threads
Reply
post #5 of 16
1/28/12 at 6:51am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nc8000 View Post

Am listening to that exact combo right now and sound seems fine with no hiss but some background humm in quiet passages. However like with all the Chineese hiend players the software and format support leaves a lot to be desired. I'm following the iBasso dx100 threads


 

finally some one to help answer my question. thanks for the info. is the colorfly considered neutral? iBasso? aren' they more known for their amps? din know they had players too.

Reply
post #6 of 16
1/28/12 at 7:00am
It is iBassos first ever player and has only been released in 40 samples less than 2 weeks ago.

C4 is fairly neutral to the slightly warm side but not as warm as the HiFiMan players.

There is noticable background noises in the quiet passages with JH13 (but not hiss). With HE-500 C4 doesn't really have the power, at max volume sound level is only barely acceptable with large symphonic music though control seems good and no background noise here.

There are all sorts of annoyances with the software as there is with the HiFiMan software so to get the full sound potential from either one needs to spend some time preparing music before loading, you don't just copy files over and press play
Reply
post #7 of 16
1/28/12 at 7:44am
Thread Starter 

what is background noise? and how bad is it? sorry but im kinda still a noob with all these terms. hissing i can get but background noise...

and would getting an ipod with a decent amp be better than the colorfly in your opinion? trying to fix up a portable rig but having a hard time trying to decide.

btw thanks a bunch for answering my questions.bigsmile_face.gif you are a good person.

Reply
post #8 of 16
1/28/12 at 1:15pm
Background noise is like the noises you get when you plug headphones straight into a bad laptop soundcard. All sorts of strange sounds. They are only audible in quiet passages and between tracks and only with sensetive phones. Of my 4 phones I only hear it with JH13.

As to getting an iPod with a decent amp that is a good question. There is no doubt that both the C4 and 801 can give better sound when fed the right files but you have to work for it whereas an iPod rig is much more plug and play with a nice ui and my iPod + SR71-B gives very, very good sound as will other amps
Reply
post #9 of 16
1/28/12 at 11:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nc8000 View Post

Background noise is like the noises you get when you plug headphones straight into a bad laptop soundcard. All sorts of strange sounds. They are only audible in quiet passages and between tracks and only with sensetive phones. Of my 4 phones I only hear it with JH13.
As to getting an iPod with a decent amp that is a good question. There is no doubt that both the C4 and 801 can give better sound when fed the right files but you have to work for it whereas an iPod rig is much more plug and play with a nice ui and my iPod + SR71-B gives very, very good sound as will other amps


Excuse me, what sort of treatment exactly have you done to your audio files before downloading to the C4?

 

I have C4 + SE535 for traveling. I noticed that there is noise (very low level but audible when no music and quiet outside) when files are played via external memory card but not the internal memory. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it yet. Could it be the memory card brand?

 

 

Reply
post #10 of 16
1/29/12 at 12:10am
I have to convert them to wav with foobar and if it is an album I want to play gapless I have to merge the tracks into one file as the C4 does not do gapless. Also there is a loud static noise between each track (when a track ends). It is really bad on music bought as wav but can be reduced by doing a wav to wav conversion in foobar (Colorflys own suggestion). After conversion it is 'only' a pop at the end of each track. The higher res the file the worse/louder it gets so is nearly inaudeble on flac in 16/44 but very audible on higer res. (This again has been acknowledge by Colorfly).

So far I have only used internal memory as I have no microSD cards
Reply
post #11 of 16
1/29/12 at 4:10am
Have just discovered that if I let foobar create a multi track file it creates one huge wav file plus a cue file and this let me skip between tracks, plays gapless and have no pop between tracks. Only problem is that such a wav file seems to be limited to 4GB size which is soon reached with hires music. Seems a good compromise is 24/48 and then let C4 upsample to 24/192 at playback.

Correction: The max filesize for this is 2GB. Above that the C4 crashes and after some time of hanging it reboots.
Edited by nc8000 - 1/29/12 at 10:19am
Reply
post #12 of 16
2/1/12 at 9:38am
Thread Starter 

hi nv8000 thanks for the crash course on background noise and insight on the colorfly. now time to decide..hmmm.....confused_face(1).gif

Reply
post #13 of 16
2/1/12 at 12:32pm
I've made the jump and bought the C4 loaner. I'm so hooked on the look and feel of the C4 and the primitive ui actually does exactly what I require in a dedicated music player and nothing more. Technically the 801 with balanced amp is a better and more flexible product and probably have the edge sq wise but holding and using the C4 just touches me somewhere and make me go all gooey. 801 going up for sale I think
Reply
post #14 of 16
2/2/12 at 3:10am
Thread Starter 

basically i like the look of it and the fact that it does nothing than play music is what i want in a dedicated music player. been thinking about it for a while but just couldn't press the buy button. too little impressions of it and those i found were mostly not from head fi. i don't really trust any other reviews except for those in head fi when it comes to audio stuff.

 

but i guess you sold me on the colorfly. should be getting one and seeing how good this player is. i am no audiophile but i do like my music to be enjoyable. hope i enjoy my C4 as much as you do ksc75smile.gif

Reply
post #15 of 16
2/2/12 at 3:14am
I hope you do. For simply playing music album by album and given you make the effort to build your files to suit the player I think it's fantastic and love it. It's not perfect and not for everybody, you have to want and accept and appreciate it for what it is. It is not a device I would give a blanket recommandation.
Edited by nc8000 - 2/2/12 at 3:16am
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Portable Source Gear
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Portable Source Gear › noob asking for help?colorfly c4 any good with jh13pro?