Apina
100+ Head-Fier
Time to follow up on my findings with the RWAK380 and RWAK380AMP combination.
(I've never done a review before so hopefully what I write makes sense
)
After leaving the unit running for 4 days to burn the system in I had a little listen last night.
Setup is as follows:
RWAK380 with RWAK380AMP (high gain mode)
Noble K10U IEMs
Moon audio silver dragon IEM cable with balanced connector
Music - A mixture of 24bit and 16bit playing in random mode
My intention was not to concentrate on the music, as a bit of an old school gaming nerd I was reading Game Over (the history of Nintendo).
The music was suppose to be just there to see how the burn in was going.
As song after song played my concentration left reading the book (I will have to re-read the last few pages
) and it switched over to what I was listening to.
I spent quite some time listening to the balanced output from the standard AK380 while Vinnie was working on the mod for the AKAMP so I am familiar with how it sounds. The biggest difference was the soundstage and how clear everything sounds.
For many years now I have been using IEMs with a vast range of portable players and at no point have I been able to say that there has been a good clean soundstage when listening to the music.
This was the point that switched my attention to the music and away from reading, every singer and every instrument had it's own space. The standard AK380 as good as it is never grabbed my attention for this reason.
Since the music was on random I ended up listening to a vast range of music types as well as a variety of 16bit and 24bit music.
As mentioned the sound stage is much wider with the RWAK combo compared to the standard AK380.
This extended sound stage plus a cleaner background allowed every part of the music to shine through with every aspect of the music much easier to pin point.
The mid range has always sounded good and now it sound more natural, but it was the highs and bass that I ended up noticing more.
The highs sounded clean and fast in one of the songs (sorry it was on random and it was late so I can't remember the exact one) I could clearly hear a triangle on the left side which I never noticed before.
Also the symbols and high hat are clear to hear easily allowing you to know was it a stick or brush that was used to play the instrument and how aggressive the drummer is playing.
The bass is much tighter then on the AK380, there is one song by Delilah (never be another) that uses a lot of low bass frequencies that I could never really appreciate without a sub woofer but this combination of player and IEMs picked up these frequencies perfectly. The same goes for Gnarls Barkley (Transformer) it sounds like there is a sub woofer somewhere in these tiny IEMs
. The bass drum also provides a good kick in the background of any song.
I ended up listening to dance, drum & bass, folk, rock, indie, blues.... oh the joys of random playback with over 300Gb of music means you hear a bit of everything
at no point was I disappointed with what I was listening to. Vocals are stunning both male and female especially with bands like London Grammar or Florence and the machine.
I am very happy with this combination the red wine modifications make the system sound more musical and represent the instruments in a more authentic way compared to the standard AK380 which can at times sound quite clinical and sharp.
My feet were tapping my book was disgarded and now I know I can travel with a system that near as damn it matches my home system in a small travel case.
The only problem I have now is do I get the JH Audio Layla 2 to compliment this solution..... I sense a swipe of the credit card followed by a diet of beans on toast for the next few months!
(I've never done a review before so hopefully what I write makes sense
After leaving the unit running for 4 days to burn the system in I had a little listen last night.
Setup is as follows:
RWAK380 with RWAK380AMP (high gain mode)
Noble K10U IEMs
Moon audio silver dragon IEM cable with balanced connector
Music - A mixture of 24bit and 16bit playing in random mode
My intention was not to concentrate on the music, as a bit of an old school gaming nerd I was reading Game Over (the history of Nintendo).
The music was suppose to be just there to see how the burn in was going.
As song after song played my concentration left reading the book (I will have to re-read the last few pages
I spent quite some time listening to the balanced output from the standard AK380 while Vinnie was working on the mod for the AKAMP so I am familiar with how it sounds. The biggest difference was the soundstage and how clear everything sounds.
For many years now I have been using IEMs with a vast range of portable players and at no point have I been able to say that there has been a good clean soundstage when listening to the music.
This was the point that switched my attention to the music and away from reading, every singer and every instrument had it's own space. The standard AK380 as good as it is never grabbed my attention for this reason.
Since the music was on random I ended up listening to a vast range of music types as well as a variety of 16bit and 24bit music.
As mentioned the sound stage is much wider with the RWAK combo compared to the standard AK380.
This extended sound stage plus a cleaner background allowed every part of the music to shine through with every aspect of the music much easier to pin point.
The mid range has always sounded good and now it sound more natural, but it was the highs and bass that I ended up noticing more.
The highs sounded clean and fast in one of the songs (sorry it was on random and it was late so I can't remember the exact one) I could clearly hear a triangle on the left side which I never noticed before.
Also the symbols and high hat are clear to hear easily allowing you to know was it a stick or brush that was used to play the instrument and how aggressive the drummer is playing.
The bass is much tighter then on the AK380, there is one song by Delilah (never be another) that uses a lot of low bass frequencies that I could never really appreciate without a sub woofer but this combination of player and IEMs picked up these frequencies perfectly. The same goes for Gnarls Barkley (Transformer) it sounds like there is a sub woofer somewhere in these tiny IEMs
I ended up listening to dance, drum & bass, folk, rock, indie, blues.... oh the joys of random playback with over 300Gb of music means you hear a bit of everything
I am very happy with this combination the red wine modifications make the system sound more musical and represent the instruments in a more authentic way compared to the standard AK380 which can at times sound quite clinical and sharp.
My feet were tapping my book was disgarded and now I know I can travel with a system that near as damn it matches my home system in a small travel case.
The only problem I have now is do I get the JH Audio Layla 2 to compliment this solution..... I sense a swipe of the credit card followed by a diet of beans on toast for the next few months!
