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iPod 6g 80GB - E17 combo- not satisfied - recommendations? - Page 2

post #16 of 25
2/19/13 at 3:18am
It's very easy to drive and the sound doesn't change much.
I compared e10>k550, m-dac>k550 and m-dac>woo audio w6>k550 on a meet
The biggest upgrade was the DAC. It made the treble much less sibilant.
I don't know exactly how it sounded anymore, i should take notes in the future. smily_headphones1.gif
Edited by HolyCheese - 2/19/13 at 3:19am
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post #17 of 25
2/19/13 at 3:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by HolyCheese View Post

It's very easy to drive and the sound doesn't change much.
I compared e10>k550, m-dac>k550 and m-dac>woo audio w6>k550 on a meet
The biggest upgrade was the DAC. It made the treble much less sibilant.
I don't know exactly how it sounded anymore, i should take notes in the future. smily_headphones1.gif

 

Thank you will remember to use as good as a DAP as I can or use better DAC;) But when I need to rule out the lesser iPod DAC I thought this could help. Remember though it should improve the portable rig with the SE215. 
 
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post #18 of 25
2/19/13 at 4:44am

Yea, true. How does it sound straight out of the ipod jack?

 

btw I don't think you need anything better for the K550 ;) the e17 is fine I think.

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post #19 of 25
2/19/13 at 9:42pm
Thread Starter 
First upgrade decision is made. Shure SE425 is on order. I'll take it from there.
Thxs already for the tips
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post #20 of 25
2/27/13 at 1:25pm
Thread Starter 

So the SE425 arrived last week. Used them for a week. Certainly at first not a big improvement. Still harsh/grainded sound on some recording. Little bass impact....was it the right choice?

 

Doing some burnin over nights at the moment and listened to some recordings today. Started to look better..but these were some good recordings as well:

  • Amber Rubarth
  • Super Audio collection volume 5 sampler

Both from chesky I think. Switched to Adele at he Albert, bit thrown back but compared to earlier this week I guess somewhat better.

 

Pairing now is iPod Classic + Alo Low rider + Alo Rx MkII so the next upgrade also arrived. Listening to that combo with the AKG K550 certainly makes me smiling. 

 

Question is will I still need to some more time with the SE425? Makes me bit stressed to buy some (half) expensive headphones and still not being satisfied.  Where else to go to?

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post #21 of 25
2/27/13 at 1:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hoppenma View Post
Where else to go to?

 

1. Bin the amp. It's not great using an amp to power IEMs that a player's amp will drive without clipping: all you are doing is chaining together two sources of noise. Maybe the AKGs need the amp, the Shures certainly should not.

 

2. Make sure you have a good ear seal - try alternative tips if necessary.

 

3.Install Rockbox and use the EQ to tune the IEMs to your ear cavity using:

 

http://www.head-fi.org/a/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial

 

Sound from an IEM is crucially dependent on interaction with the ear cavity. A gram of intelligence and knowledge is more likely to result in good sound than a ton of random audio product buying.

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post #22 of 25
2/27/13 at 2:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by scuttle View Post

 

1. Bin the amp. It's not great using an amp to power IEMs that a player's amp will drive without clipping: all you are doing is chaining together two sources of noise. Maybe the AKGs need the amp, the Shures certainly should not.

 

2. Make sure you have a good ear seal - try alternative tips if necessary.

 

3.Install Rockbox and use the EQ to tune the IEMs to your ear cavity using:

 

http://www.head-fi.org/a/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial

 

Sound from an IEM is crucially dependent on interaction with the ear cavity. A gram of intelligence and knowledge is more likely to result in good sound than a ton of random audio product buying.

Lol scuttle thxs for the advice. Will not dump the amp yet though ;)

Rockbox is already installed but in my opinion it should be good straight out..I installed Rockbox to be able to play flac. Will look into IEM sealing..

 

Also try to over actively buy new products

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post #23 of 25
2/27/13 at 2:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scuttle View Post

 

1. Bin the amp. It's not great using an amp to power IEMs that a player's amp will drive without clipping: all you are doing is chaining together two sources of noise. Maybe the AKGs need the amp, the Shures certainly should not.

 

 

The amp is likely beneficial for the OP because it offers lower output impedance than the Classic's headphone-out does....and many IEM's are very sensitive to output impedance.

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post #24 of 25
2/27/13 at 5:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Achmedisdead View Post

The amp is likely beneficial for the OP because it offers lower output impedance than the Classic's headphone-out does....and many IEM's are very sensitive to output impedance.

 

Good point. In arguing myself out of my anti-iPod prejudice, I'd forgotten how much the output impedance is and assumed that it would be something sane like a Clip's - given that an iPod costs about 8 times what a Clip does, it would seem reasonable.

 

Yes, that will cause a substantial dip somewhere in the treble. But it is one that Rockbox's EQ will easily fix during pink noise tuning the Shures, so it doesn't really change anything. (If it did, then I'd suggest ditching the iPod for a Clip+ would be a better solution than adding an amp - you'd get the low impedance without the noise of only a single amp, which is very low for the Clip anyway.)

 

Btw - the dip that you get with typical iems and an ipod due to impedance mismatch is usually of about the same severity as the spike's most people have in the upper midrange due to ear chamber response. And many people have TWO spikes! So that people spend money and go to the trouble of carrying around an amp to deal with one, but ignore the other, probably worse, problem always strikes me as somewhat odd. Especially as EQing with pink noise would take care of both problems.

 

I suppose there have to be people for who the impedance dip and ear chamber spike cancel each other out with the right IEMs...

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post #25 of 25
3/8/13 at 2:51am
Thread Starter 

So here's some photo's of my updated rig..

 

Fiio E17->Alo Rx II

Shure SE215->SE425 BTW I'm very glad I tried the larger sleeves, finally bass is something to be liked on these ;)

 

Thxs for the advice everyone

 

 

 

 

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