Hi all, long time reader, fairly new poster here. I've learned a good amount from you headphone nuts, and I must officially declare my discontent for making me spend an inordinate amount of cash on cables, headphones, amps, and the like.
Despite that, I want to give back to the community by posting my impressions of JVC's little surround headphone processor.
For those unfamilier with the product, the JVC device is as it is named - a surround processor. It accepts either line in via 1/8" mini plug or a digital input through 1/8" optical toslink. It accepts and decodes Dolby Digital, Dolby Prologic (1&2), DTS, and MPG2 AAC. It also decodes Dolby Headphone natively with its three ambient settings. It also, of course, passes stereo PCM.
I've hooked up the processor to my external USB DAC (Xitel) outputting optical to the JVC. Dolby Digital and DTS sound very very good through headphones, and Dolby Headphone sometimes adds welcome ambience (movies), sometimes not (music).
For 2-channel music, I do not use Dolby Headphone as it tends to restrain the vocal frequency range for sake of trying to add "depth" to the overall equation. Ironically, it sometimes produces music that sounds hollow, like Charlie Brown's teacher when she speaks. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the picture.
I also use the JVC for a wacky portable get up:
FLAC -> Iriver IHP-120 Rockbox'd -> Optical Out -> JVC 2-channel -> Line out to PA2V2 -> Senn595 or UEPro5 all velcro'd together. Sizewise, the square JVC unit is pretty small, maybe just a centimeter wider, but a centimeter shorter than an iPod.
From left to right: Iriver, PA2V2, JVC, Ipod 5G
Cable hell!
And I gotta admit, this config sounds pretty damn good, considerably better than line out from Iriver straight to PA2V2. The sound is crisper, fuller, and with a nice quiet noise floor.
For comparison, I also use a Rockbox'd 5G ipod with an Audiolineout silk dock to the PA2V2, and to my ears, the JVC combo sounds maybe a smidge better.
Anyway, using the JVC in a portable application doesn't produce the most svelt or elegant package, and thus more appeals to the tweaker geek in me -- doing it just b/c I can.
As a standalone "DAC" for the Iriver, or computer output, this probably isn't the best quality solution, but it's nice for dual use purposes since it also decodes Dolby Digital / DTS for movies stored on my computer.
Despite that, I want to give back to the community by posting my impressions of JVC's little surround headphone processor.
For those unfamilier with the product, the JVC device is as it is named - a surround processor. It accepts either line in via 1/8" mini plug or a digital input through 1/8" optical toslink. It accepts and decodes Dolby Digital, Dolby Prologic (1&2), DTS, and MPG2 AAC. It also decodes Dolby Headphone natively with its three ambient settings. It also, of course, passes stereo PCM.
I've hooked up the processor to my external USB DAC (Xitel) outputting optical to the JVC. Dolby Digital and DTS sound very very good through headphones, and Dolby Headphone sometimes adds welcome ambience (movies), sometimes not (music).
For 2-channel music, I do not use Dolby Headphone as it tends to restrain the vocal frequency range for sake of trying to add "depth" to the overall equation. Ironically, it sometimes produces music that sounds hollow, like Charlie Brown's teacher when she speaks. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the picture.
I also use the JVC for a wacky portable get up:
FLAC -> Iriver IHP-120 Rockbox'd -> Optical Out -> JVC 2-channel -> Line out to PA2V2 -> Senn595 or UEPro5 all velcro'd together. Sizewise, the square JVC unit is pretty small, maybe just a centimeter wider, but a centimeter shorter than an iPod.
From left to right: Iriver, PA2V2, JVC, Ipod 5G
Cable hell!
And I gotta admit, this config sounds pretty damn good, considerably better than line out from Iriver straight to PA2V2. The sound is crisper, fuller, and with a nice quiet noise floor.
For comparison, I also use a Rockbox'd 5G ipod with an Audiolineout silk dock to the PA2V2, and to my ears, the JVC combo sounds maybe a smidge better.
Anyway, using the JVC in a portable application doesn't produce the most svelt or elegant package, and thus more appeals to the tweaker geek in me -- doing it just b/c I can.
As a standalone "DAC" for the Iriver, or computer output, this probably isn't the best quality solution, but it's nice for dual use purposes since it also decodes Dolby Digital / DTS for movies stored on my computer.
