I finally recieved the gray (blue) knowles dampers from mouser and the clarity I was missing in the mids/highs with the browns and ety greens are back. The vocals are more forward and has an overall better crispness. The sound stage also seems larger. The bass is certainly less pronouced with...

Slim142 - FLAC vs. other lossless formats is a raging debate and I'm certainly not qualified to weigh in. That said, to me lossless is lossless and how one type sounds may be more related to the software/ DAC. I have heard some folks say AIFF is faster to decode, but others say the clock cycles...

I've put the green ety dampers/filters in my SE535s this morning and have been listening to them for a few hours. In comparison with the brown knowles filters the vocals seem to be a little more forward and there is certainly still ample bass. They highs still don't seem as crisp as they did...

Thanks for the tip. I have a bunch of ety green filters/dampers from my er-4p that I will have to try in my SE535s. I ordered a set of different knowles dampers many weeks ago and only the browns have been delivered so far (the rest are back-ordered). The browns (1000 ohm) certainly add some...

Here's a partial answer. iTunes does support 24 bit in ALAC and AIFF. iTunes does not like FLAC, but there are a number of free lossless decoders you can use to convert to ALAC. I haven't tried wav files (native CD) but it likely does. I've stored 192 and 96 kHz (24 bit) files in iTunes (ALAC...

GameGuppy - I should have also qualified my remarks to include that I have not used an external amp, so I may not know what I'm missing. The gain levels I've used on both those devices using the DT-1350s have never been above about 75%, and I do like to listen to loud music on occasion (I...

I have the Beyerdynamic 1350 headphones but I haven't tried the momentums so I can't help with a comparison. However I can say that I can drive them easily without an external amp with my AK100 dac/amp. I also just checked them out on my daughter's iPod touch and they sound good with that also...

Thank you for the responses cswann1 and whirlwind. I didn't know that some of the newer remasters were geared toward the iPod mp3 folks, but that makes sense. I have noticed that they have somehow boosted the sound level or newer CD's (I don't know if that is a good thing or not). That's...

I recently purchased a used pair of Grado RS1i headphones. They sound great, but what really surprised me is how good some of old CDs now sound. Most of these CDs I really haven't listened to much over the past few years since they have sounded terrible on my IEMs (Shure Se535), other...

That is probably the correct one. Although they look metal on the website. The one i have is pretty old and is basically a thin wood screw in a black plastic holder. The screw end on the plastic one I have is a little flakey (when loose it slips into the holder). One of the stock dampers broke...

As long as I don't know what I'm missing, I will be satisfied (plus I spent a lot on audio this month - new headphones and mod).

If you already have the SE535s, you might want to try replacing the dampers. See: http://www.head-fi.org/t/663273/se530-535-acoustic-filter-mod-more-sq-improvement-than-cables-dampers#post_9711106 I just started using the brown (1000 ohm) dampers (ordered a few different types from mouser.com...

I opted for the RWAK100 mod to drive my low impedance IEMs instead of using a separate amp. It now sounds fantastic with my Shure SE5353s. It also can drive my Grado RS1is are a reasonable gain / sound level. I'd like to check out the advantages of a separate portable amp in the future, but for...

I received both the G cushions (not from Grado, but less expensive ones from Ear Zonk via Amazon) and the sennheiser yellow flat cushions. They both sound much smoother with a wider soundstage than with the stock L cushions, probably due to the increased distance between your ear and the driver...

I just tried out the browns (the grays and whites are still backordered from mouser) on my SE535s with a recently-modded rwak100. The removal of the stock dampers was easy using the Etymotic tool that came with my ER-4ps (although one split during the removal). I agree with Davee5's impressions...

Gnomeplay - I tracked back to the other thread you referred to. That was a very helpful set of posts for getting acclimated to the RS1is and interesting to hear about what others have tried. Thanks for the pointer. Mark

I just got the Grado RS1i (used on tis site). My first impressions is that they sound fantastic with alt/indy rock (e.g., shins, flaming lips) but the classical music i've listened to so far wasn't as satisfying. Listening to Beethoven's emperor piano concerto - great on the passages with few...

My ak100 is currently being modded (rwa) and it will probably be a week or so until I get it back in order to start playing with the se535s again. I've been using over the ear headphones with the ak100 since the pairing with the se535s wasn't that good. It took me about 9 months to get the...

This thread has me very excited about tweaking my se535s. I just ordered 3 different types of Knowles dampers from Mouser (330, 680, and 1000 ohm), sadly 2 are backordered (the lower resistance ones). Thank you for the info, testing, and impressions. This is one of the few things to try without...

I really appreciate the pictures SDBiotek, particularly with the AK100. You must have quite a large collection of gear. Billybob_jcv - Thanks for the pointer to the used amp for sale. it appears the unit is sold but that would have been a sweet deal with all the extra op amps. I'm still...

Thank you both for the suggestions ... They hit at about the same time and listed the Leckerton UHA-6S. It looks like what I need without a lot extra. I looked up the reviews on it on this site and they look pretty good. I can't tell yet from the pictures on their website or the ones I've found...

Thank you the reply controllerboy. Yup - it does look like the fiio E17 has an optical input, but it also has a lot of other things I don't need which makes me suspicious of the amp quality (at that price) and would make for a pretty thick stack. I've seen a lot of thin dedicated portable amps...

Fairwell - You mentioned the AK120 but cost was a concern. For everything on your list (except the headphones - which I don't have), the AK100 or RWAK100 might be worth considering. Additionally, for storage capacity you can put in two 64 GB mico sd cards (formatted to FAT32) to get an overall...

I haven't looked at more recent IEM's but the Shure SE535s that I bought a few years ago has a very good deep and punchy bass (compared to my etymotic ER4Ps) and should be around your price point. I use them with a iPod touch and listen to a lot of rock (with some alt, jazz, and classical). I...

If so ... impressions and/or pictures. Thanks, Mark