Tralucent Audio 1Plus2 IEM Appreciation/Impressions Thread - Page 42

Well since were on the mobile DAC subject I was thinking of getting the new CLAS db but the couple of reviews I've read thus far have made me wonder if it would be such a good idea. One guy wasn't impressed with it at all and described it as overly warm and lush sounding which is a complete 180 to the more neutral sounding original Wolfson chip the first CLAS used to use. I'm more about transparency and realistic detail not overly lush and stoned out mellow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lee730 

Yeah I've kinda moved on from the stoney sound ;). If I want that I'd just roll an Op Amp in the UHA6.

That's exactly my view too. Heck, as far as I'm concerned give me a flat detailed and neutral sounding DAC and if I want a more mellow melodic sound I'll roll some op amps into Eva or go tube and get a Continental. Going lush on a DAC in my opinion is not a good idea unless that's the sort of sound you're permanently after. Nothing wrong with that sig of coarse I'm just saying it would be better to give everyone the choice by allowing the person to tailoring the amp to the CLAS instead of the other way around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lee730 

 

You can't go wrong with the DX100 my friend. So much better on the latest firmware update and they are still working on the few minor issues remaining. It's a very useable player. Has low output impedance. Lots of power, amazing sound quality. I'd skip the 801 unless you don't mind high output impedance, rolled off treble, slow UI, etc. The HiFi M8 has me tempted as well but I think its amp section will be a weak-point in comparison to what I have now so I really wanted them to release and upgraded pure DAC with 24/192 support. Then I'd be all over it like rice-cake :).

Yeah, one of the members said it's bad with sensitive IEMs. Been hearing lots of good things about DX100. Well, I don't own any of these gears yet so I am no rush :P

I think part of the fun in this hobby is window shopping. You learn to appreciate what you have when you finally get it.

That's quite a bit of exaggeration there. Let's not get too overly excited and blow things out of proportion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saraguie 

One way to make your i~devices(and probably the others but I have not tried) better is the get a AMP/DAC combo. The two portable's I know of that you can purchase and receive right away are GO DAP X $449 and Fostex HP-P1 $619.  I can tell you this, when you first plug in your DAP, turn on the AMP/DAC regardless of how good your IEMs are (And Tralucent for sure is good) your mouth will drop open and your SQ will be 100% better. It's amazing what happens.

Even on poorly copied or recorded music. Some of these, a million dollar rig won't help but the majority will.

There's also the CLAS. 

For portables, I just went with O2/ODAC since they're the cheapest, and have best value for the money. The rest of my money will go to desktop stuff since I love my LCD2 more than anything. :P

I find my ES5s perfectly fine with my iPhone 5 since I just don't pay attention to the 'details' when I'm on the move, outside of my home. I made the compromise here, in relation to how far one should take the portable gear to. I definitely did not find it 'worth' spending over $300 for sound I will most likely not really appreciate unless I'm sitting down somewhere quiet. But I have my LCD2 to listen to when I'm in such situations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saraguie 

One way to make your i~devices(and probably the others but I have not tried) better is the get a AMP/DAC combo. The two portable's I know of that you can purchase and receive right away are GO DAP X $449 and Fostex HP-P1 $619.  I can tell you this, when you first plug in your DAP, turn on the AMP/DAC regardless of how good your IEMs are (And Tralucent for sure is good) your mouth will drop open and your SQ will be 100% better. It's amazing what happens.

Even on poorly copied or recorded music. Some of these, a million dollar rig won't help but the majority will.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Girls Generation 

That's quite a bit of exaggeration there. Let's not get too overly excited and blow things out of proportion.

 

There's also the CLAS. 

For portables, I just went with O2/ODAC since they're the cheapest, and have best value for the money. The rest of my money will go to desktop stuff since I love my LCD2 more than anything. :P

I find my ES5s perfectly fine with my iPhone 5 since I just don't pay attention to the 'details' when I'm on the move, outside of my home. I made the compromise here, in relation to how far one should take the portable gear to. I definitely did not find it 'worth' spending over $300 for sound I will most likely not really appreciate unless I'm sitting down somewhere quiet. But I have my LCD2 to listen to when I'm in such situations.

I stand by what I said FOR ME. I had listened for 10 years or so to IEMs, Shure's of decent quality and for 7 with my iPod line out to a RSA amp without a DAC. The first time about 2 months ago, I plugged into the Fostex it was a WOW moment. Every listening session I have there are WOW moments. I'll notice the bass guitar play a note I've never heard before or the tom toms are so deep they tone actually vibrates thru the phones, or I can hear a harmony last longer then ever before. Happens on my 334s, Miracles and my $22 Sony MH1Cs. Its the DAC in the chain. So for me it is no exaggeration.  Whether in a mall surrounded by shoppers or at home with no one around the WOWs happen. Maybe GG your phones don't isolate as good as mine when your out and about or I'm just so new to high end audio. Whichever or whatever I believe the wows will continue.

That's perfectly fine, I think everyone has 'wow' moments too. I know I had my wow moment with the LCD2 when I first listened to it. 

But here, since you made the point that you meant for yourself, let me highlight some words from your original post for you.

Extreme statements such as 'regardless,' 'always,' '100%,' etc. are best avoided because nothing is guaranteed since sound is subjective. Most of the time, it comes off as exaggeration, and is a pet peeve among many head-fiers. It's also considered unhelpful to other members since it misrepresents and/or misinforms people. It's almost as bad as talking about a piece of gear's sound, advising people, when one has not even heard it himself.

My IEMs have some crazy isolation but it's not just about isolation; there is vibration from your body, bone conduction, micro phonics, etc. that take away from the sound. Then there is also the psychological aspect where I'm not quite solely concentrating on the music since I'm out and about doing other things, or there are things present around me that are distracting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saraguie 

 

 

I stand by what I said FOR ME. I had listened for 10 years or so to IEMs, Shure's of decent quality and for 7 with my iPod line out to a RSA amp without a DAC. The first time about 2 months ago, I plugged into the Fostex it was a WOW moment. Every listening session I have there are WOW moments. I'll notice the bass guitar play a note I've never heard before or the tom toms are so deep they tone actually vibrates thru the phones, or I can hear a harmony last longer then ever before. Happens on my 334s, Miracles and my $22 Sony MH1Cs. Its the DAC in the chain. So for me it is no exaggeration.  Whether in a mall surrounded by shoppers or at home with no one around the WOWs happen. Maybe GG your phones don't isolate as good as mine when your out and about or I'm just so new to high end audio. Whichever or whatever I believe the wows will continue.

You are a Sone? Well, I am a Stand. Okay, putting the terrible joke aside I hope you can answer this question.

Did Purolator deliver the package or was it Canada Post? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bokyung 

elnero might be bit surprised by this post. I somewhat feel bad about this since it feels like I've back-stabbed him. We've been discussing about audio gears in general and he has generously offered for some advice, so the least thing I could have done was PM him and mention that I recently decided to get 1Plus2.

Don't feel bad or the need to apologize, we all go through this audio journey in different ways. If you haven't heard a good source and amp it's probably hard to understand the difference it will make. You'll get there when you're ready. :-)

That said, congrats on the 1plus2's! I'm going to be looking forward to reading your impressions and hopefully some comparisons to a few of the other IEM's in your stable. I can't wait to hear the demo pair myself, during the slow period a few weeks back my interest waned a bit but after recently talking to Gavin about the tour and the revisions, our discussions have rejuvenated my enthusiasm. It's not just the product either, it's the responsiveness and genuine passion that is apparent when talking with him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lee730 

The HiFi M8 has me tempted as well but I think its amp section will be a weak-point in comparison to what I have now so I really wanted them to release and upgraded pure DAC with 24/192 support. Then I'd be all over it like rice-cake :).

I'm curious why you think the amp section will be a weak point? The DACmini has a pretty good headphone amp in it and the HiFi-M8 is supposed to have a similar, if not better, amp, plus it will also have more control over the output making it easier to use with a wide range of headphones. Sure it's not likely to beat out a good standalone amp but as a portable DAC/Amp combo my expectation is this will be one of the better ones on the market.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bokyung 

Haha, that's exactly what elnero said. I wanted to get the HiFi M8 after he mentioned it to me. I just got a PM saying there's still a slot for a preorder. I am going to preorder but I am not sure when it's going to be released.

 

I looked around and was tempted to get a used DX100 but the seller was facing some unexpected personal problems so things didn't work out. 

Then 801 caught my attention so I asked around and got few responses back. Too bulky, etc etc etc.

 

I will just take my time and explore around for now. Will probably have to get get some sort of amping soon , since I gave my used O2 (got it cheaply, like 40 bucks) to my acquiescence as an early xmas present.

 

Yeah, I never owned a single DAC in my life. Just few amps here and there. I will have to look into this combo, although it does sound bit expensive for my pocket right now :(

What really appeals to me about the HiFi-M8 is it's versatility, it's USB and iDevice inputs will allow for high quality listening in many more situations than I'm able to now. It should also be able to drive all but the most difficult headphones which will give me flexibility in my future buying decisions. The various "sound shaping" switches on the back will, at least to some degree, help match and tailor the sound of each headphone I use with it. That it will offer balanced output as well as single-ended is a bonus which gives me a further upgrade path. That's not to mention that based on my experiences with the DACmini and from what I've read about the design goals of the M8 I expect it will offer some of the best sound quality from a portable DAC/Amp combo unit. It's shaping up to be the swiss army knife of portable DAC/Amp combos.

As you can tell I'm pretty excited about the prospect of the HiFi-M8, I've been waiting for a product like it to be released for quite some time now, but that's me, your needs and preferences may be very different to mine. A DAP may serve you better or maybe a good USB DAC/Amp, there's plenty of things out there to consider. I think the first step is figuring out how and where you want to use it, that will start to narrow down the choices giving you more focus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by elnero 

I'm curious why you think the amp section will be a weak point? The DACmini has a pretty good headphone amp in it and the HiFi-M8 is supposed to have a similar, if not better, amp, plus it will also have more control over the output making it easier to use with a wide range of headphones. Sure it's not likely to beat out a good standalone amp but as a portable DAC/Amp combo my expectation is this will be one of the better ones on the market.

Not to highjack the thread but Michael was very clear that the M8's AMP was not going to be as strong. I hope I'm wrong as I'm on the list but its

FWIR.

And GG my last comment is.......I believe 100% that when one plugs into a DAC~AMP for the first time, if the volume is of a sufficient amount to hear clearly the song (unless one has profound hearing loss) that is playing, there will be a WOW moment.........90% (based on the recorded material) of the time. With lossless and a decent DAP and almost any phones 99.9999999% of the time. FOR ANYONE.