I remember when Alienware first debuted, and their systems had whimsical names like "Area 51" and "Hivemind."
 
I've been thinking about getting a gaming laptop as well, though I'm rather partial to the Samsung Series 7...

phoenixclaw said:

Well, Jaben Singapore is the "mothership" where Uncle Wilson started it all. Although I've heard Jaben HK also has lots of offerings.

as for the Custom One's, I'm afraid I can't give very detailed impressions about them because I focused more on the IEMs. I can describe the sound to be slightly v-shaped with more emphasis on treble than on the bass. Bass was surprisingly not boomy at all. I couldn't really tell much about different positions of the switches because I didn't spend a lot of time with them. They were left closed for the most part. It has large soundstage, probably because I've been using the dt1350s and the IEMs. I can't really label the sound because it has no signature trait that one often associates with cans. If I would assign an adjective though it would be clean. Bass was just enough, sometimes lacking on some tracks while the treble was slightly emphasized on some. As a whole though it's pretty good by itself. It loses to the DT1350 in terms of detailing and imaging but I would imagine it's because the Custom One Pros were designed to be consumer-level cans.

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That sounds promising. I've been following the COP thread on head-fi, but there's not a lot of people whom I trust their judgement there. I understand though how you're not focusing on it and more on the IEMs. Going back a bit, it's interesting that you though that the JH13 demo was meh, because I thought so too. Although, looking back at my notes, I wrote "it's what a CIEM GR07 mkII would've been like, except with less bass impact and generally higher SQ". Note though that in the same day that I tried it, I also tried the GR07 MKII and said it's "facking perfection".

ardgedee said:

Various writers for the major press got samples of the iPhone after the announcement last week, so they've had more than a couple hours to use them. Anybody who got theirs on day 0 of sales, and blogging up their reviews, though, yeah. Although I have no objection to people reporting their first impressions as such.

Apple's been pretty reliable in reporting battery life for their previous phones, so assuming they're equally honest this time, the reported numbers should be decent: About a week between charges if I use it as much as I used my past non-smart phones, and a couple days between charges if I use it as much as my smartphones.

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I wouldn't have any problem if they state so like that though. And if they're posting up their first impressions in day 0, then say it so and not as a 'review'.

Actually I was using the GR07 as a reference to the JH13 and Stage 3 demos. Indeed both step up in terms of detailing and overall refinement but the JH13 sounded boring. The Stage 3 made me go "This is the upgrade to the GR07!" Upgrade because it had much better bass presence without losing the great sub-bass texturing and a completely smooth treble. It was amazingly neutral yet musical at the same time. It's probably "warm" like the GR07 though it wasn't so obvious.
 
I understand how I'm praising this so much, but consider my session a while ago at Jaben my epiphany into higher CIEMs. Prior to today the high(est) end EM's I have heard are Westone/Shure/Sony/Earsonics flagships (excluding the F111).
 
EDIT: I wanted to try out the Heir Audio 4.A (demo) as well to finally pit it against the F111 and everything else there but I was told that Jaben will not be bringing demos anymore after some guy broke all 4 demos during the MOD DAC HiFi Show a month back.

phoenixclaw said:

Actually I was using the GR07 as a reference to the JH13 and Stage 3 demos. Indeed both step up in terms of detailing and overall refinement but the JH13 sounded boring. The Stage 3 made me go "This is the upgrade to the GR07!" Upgrade because it had much better bass presence without losing the great sub-bass texturing and a completely smooth treble. It was amazingly neutral yet musical at the same time. It's probably "warm" like the GR07 though it wasn't so obvious.

I understand how I'm praising this so much, but consider my session a while ago at Jaben my epiphany into higher CIEMs. Prior to today the high(est) end EM's I have heard are Westone/Shure/Sony/Earsonics flagships (excluding the F111).

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That's interesting. Well I can look forward to the Stage 3 demo then (if it's coming to Jaben Malaysia that is) next year.

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jgray91 said:

That's interesting. Well I can look forward to the Stage 3 demo then (if it's coming to Jaben Malaysia that is) next year.

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Just be mindful of the price. I was quoted that ordering through Jaben will cost a whopping 2088 SGD. The price on Compact Monitor's website says 999 EUR though, which amounts to 1570 SGD by today's currency exchange rates. I wonder what the final price will be with shipping + tax + local gst + impressions compared to Jaben's.

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muppetface said:

I remember when Alienware first debuted, and their systems had whimsical names like "Area 51" and "Hivemind."
 
I've been thinking about getting a gaming laptop as well, though I'm rather partial to the Samsung Series 7...

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The gamer one or the chronos one? The gamer one seems pretty good hardware wise.
 
This is a very good site with a lot of technical tests to see which performs better, and so on:
 
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Top-10-Desktop-Replacement-Laptops.17035.0.html

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phoenixclaw said:

EDIT: I wanted to try out the Heir Audio 4.A (demo) as well to finally pit it against the F111 and everything else there but I was told that Jaben will not be bringing demos anymore after some guy broke all 4 demos during the MOD DAC HiFi Show a month back.

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Whooof. After the first one, why did they let him touch anything?

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ardgedee said:

Various writers for the major press got samples of the iPhone after the announcement last week, so they've had more than a couple hours to use them. Anybody who got theirs on day 0 of sales, and blogging up their reviews, though, yeah. Although I have no objection to people reporting their first impressions as such.

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iPhone5 review by the Verge
 
"But there's also another segment of the market, of which I consider myself a part. That segment thinks that there's still a lot of work to be done in mobile devices; still a lot of innovation to come. And that's not innovation for the sake of innovation. I mean real innovation in the way we use our phones, in the flexibility of those operating systems, in how those devices become an extension of ourselves. For that segment, I think the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 fall short. There's a lot more work to be done, but right now Apple seems to be in a holding pattern, too comfortable or too scared to take real chances."

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ardgedee said:

 
Whooof. After the first one, why did they let him touch anything?

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Maybe the guy did it all at once
 
I honestly don't know even know how you would break custom demos.

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muppetface said:

I remember when Alienware first debuted, and their systems had whimsical names like "Area 51" and "Hivemind."
 
I've been thinking about getting a gaming laptop as well, though I'm rather partial to the Samsung Series 7...

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Mine is an Area 51. I think they discontinued it though. I think they still have the aurora. That's also a pretty spaced-out name too lol . I remember the OldsMobile Aurora. Pretty nice car for its time.
 

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shotgunshane said:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/21/authentication_chips_discovered_in_teardown_of_apples_new_lightning_connector

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It's a totally unfounded assumption. In lieu of evidence is a claim based on a single teardown by somebody who assumes it's an auth chip purely because he didn't recognize it.
 
The Thunderbolt connector is also chipped, but it's a multiplexer. After all, with nine pins at the Lightning end and four pins + shield at the USB end, it would make sense to put some logic in the connector, too. You can't simply run a wire from one pin to a totally different pin and expect things to work, the way you can with most analog and some simple digital connectors.
 
I trust AppleInsider only less than I trust Weekly World News. Unlike the WWN, AppleInsider will print anything.
 
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digitalfreak said:

Since we have some iPhone 5 users could someone please hook up a DAC and please let me know if the new connection dock is sand boxed or if it's open to use by all DAC manufacturers?????

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Setting aside whether or not there's a chip, the main challenge at the moment is finding a way to connect the USB-A-male end of the Lightning connector to the USB-B-female end your DAC-of-choice. I've got a few different DACs available to me, but they're all either full-size USB-B or micro-USB. Hypothetically there are adaptors available, but I haven't see one. And an adaptor might not be adequate -- if Apple's standard Lightning connector is just USB data and power, you might need a different connector to access the dedicated digital signal out.
 
I'm guessing we'll have an answer from somebody by the end of today or tomorrow. Team Diary's not the only bunch of people interested in this question.

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phoenixclaw said:

I honestly don't know even know how you would break custom demos.

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It's pretty easy. The stems are brittle acrylic and easy to snap. The universal tip or whatnot even helps provide gripping surface for added leverage.

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ardgedee said:

 
It's a totally unfounded assumption. In lieu of evidence is a claim based on a single teardown by somebody who assumes it's an auth chip purely because he didn't recognize it.
 
The Thunderbolt connector is also chipped, but it's a multiplexer. After all, with nine pins at the Lightning end and four pins + shield at the USB end, it would make sense to put some logic in the connector, too. You can't simply run a wire from one pin to a totally different pin and expect things to work, the way you can with most analog and some simple digital connectors.
 
I trust AppleInsider only less than I trust Weekly World News. Unlike the WWN, AppleInsider will print anything.
 
 
Setting aside whether or not there's a chip, the main challenge at the moment is finding a way to connect the USB-A-male end of the Lightning connector to the USB-B-female end your DAC-of-choice. I've got a few different DACs available to me, but they're all either full-size USB-B or micro-USB. Hypothetically there are adapters available, but I haven't see one. And an adapter might not be adequate -- if Apple's standard Lightning connector is just USB data and power, you might need a different connector to access the dedicated digital signal out.
 
I'm guessing we'll have an answer from somebody by the end of today or tomorrow. Team Diary's not the only bunch of people interested in this question.

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 I thought double helix cables was selling an adapter already to accommodate for this?

phoenixclaw said:

EDIT: I wanted to try out the Heir Audio 4.A (demo) as well to finally pit it against the F111 and everything else there but I was told that Jaben will not be bringing demos anymore after some guy broke all 4 demos during the MOD DAC HiFi Show a month back.

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just saw your edit. Wow. That guy should be banned from entering the shop after all that.

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ardgedee said:

I trust AppleInsider only less than I trust Weekly World News. Unlike the WWN, AppleInsider will print anything.

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