All this talk of Aliexpress sales makes me half wish I had waited, but I only want to have one set of buds around and overall I'm quite happy with my BS1's. Fit/comfort is solid over-ear, the clarity is great, and for me they are quite simply enjoyable to listen to no matter what I throw at...

Initially I thought it was a separate issue as I heard both the clicking and something more like static, but I also hear it when the buds aren't plugged into anything so it was probably both the cable hitting the housing and microphonics. Wearing over ear has largely eliminated it, thanks!

My BS1's came in today. Sound is great, love the clarity. There is one annoyance though. When the cable moves a certain way, I hear some small crackling/popping sounds. I'm not sure if this is the sign of a potential defect or that's just the way it is.

I'm ready :L3000:

RIP my MX880's are now completely dead :( Had to go digging around for the stock earbuds that came with my J3 so that I wasn't completely deprived of music on the go. I've been holding off on ordering the BS1's until my new credit card comes in, but I'm not sure how much longer I can wait...

I actually think rock in various forms probably edges out those two in my playlist. Plenty of acoustic, OST, and pop stuff in there as well

I read your conversation with @Ceteru when someone suggested the Tomahawk to him and I feel like his feelings more or less mirrored mine. While a lot of the genres I listed are a bit metal or electronic in nature, the reality is I enjoy pretty much all music and listen to enough variety of...

Thanks for finding that. While I do like my MX880's a lot, I think it's time to move on from them, particularly because they had one feature that was rather annoying in the crappy volume control. I listen from a Cowon J3, not really sure how it's considered.

(Initially posted in the budget earbuds thread before realizing what I'm willing to pay might extend past the scope of that thread) After 7 years my MX880's are finally starting to die and I'm looking for something new to replace them with. I enjoy listening to a variety of genres including...

You're right, I think I will go ahead and move my posts over there so we don't clutter up this thread anymore. I made my initial post without really thinking about how much money I was willing to put in.

Thinking about it maybe I should have posted in the round-up thread as I'm not opposed to spending up to ~$100 as long as it's worth it and will last. For example @seanc6441 your posts about the Penon BS1 caught my eye.

After 7 years my MX880's are finally starting to die (lost the left channel) so now I'm looking for a replacement and my head is kind of spinning with all of the different names. My playlist is largely rock though I do listen to a variety of other genres as well. I do like good solid bass...

K3cT's point actually was not to go and build the y2, but rather simply buy the y2 board while you're already ordering from AMB and use it as the y1's bridge.  The y1 boards have to mated together in some way anyways.  In a typical y1 only build, you either do that by breaking the y1 boards...

Quote: The problem I'm running into is that it won't melt even when I hold the iron tip directly on it for several seconds.  I think I'm going to go ahead and order a new board.  Start off fresh, plus it gives me the excuse to order the case panels I had held off on initially.  Thankfully I...

Well... I've tried several times now and still can't clear the hole.  Whatever is in there now just doesn't want to melt.  Is there any way to salvage this without clearing it?  Or am I stuck with buying a new board?

It's an adjustable Xytronic pencil iron.  This one: http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7484   I've been trying with the dial at somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 way.  Tried both the stock tip and sticking a smaller 1/64" tip directly in.

Well, I managed to get everything off the board, but I'm having difficulty clearing one of the holes.  What's bothering me is that whatever is in it doesn't appear to be melting at all even when I put my iron directly on it.  I'm a bit concerned that I might've damaged something or other...

Alright, that's what I figured.  I'm going to see if I can get them off the board without breaking them, but if I have to replace them, could someone confirm whether these are the right ones? 9P Header 3P Receptacle 5P Receptacle   Thanks

Think you might've misunderstood me.  I know that the boards are not mating correctly.  When I was asking if it matters, I was referring to how on the Gamma1 page it specifies the headers for J2U/J3U and the receptacles for J4D/J5D.  I accidentally flipped them (and did the Gamma2 "right"...

Well I managed to do something stupid... I soldered on the 3P and 5P headers and receptacles onto my Gamma2 board to test the Gamma1 without checking against the Gamma1 board first and ended up with them swapped.  (In truth I may have actually done the Gamma1 wrong, but it shouldn't matter as...

For the output, I'm having a set of RCA pre-amp outputs, so I'm just trying to follow the suggestion you made in post 7 to avoid noise floating.

  I was looking at possibly socketing the output transistors for easier potential swapping.  Would TO220 sockets like these ones work?  And if so, would there be any disadvantage/detriment to using them?   If the sockets would work, is there any safe, reasonable way to hookup the output...

No, those are indeed pics of the SMK that David from HLLY posted in the DMK thread when he was announcing the new unit.

Quote: Easiest way is to type what you want the "name" to be, highlight, and then insert link using the link button

Perhaps the Carrie Amp?  The group buy is going down soon.  Will need to choose between a grubDAC or BantamDAC to add with it.