[mvalpreda]

This was the first time that I supported a crowd-sourced product through Indiegogo. Very disappointed that (at least some) supporters did not receive their cables yet. Assuming that I will one day see my purchase, I hope at least some of the early production flaws are corrected

The crowd-funded campaigns are just trouble. They are always late, they are always a mess.....not sure how I signed up for this one. At least the credit card I used for the payment gives me enough time to get my money back. Better ship before then!

 

[crinacle]

Is it possible to upload a personalized DSP EQ profile into the Capri cable, like Audeze's iSine cipher cable? I'd really want to have my W900's desktop EQ profile with me wherever I go, but obviously iOS' EQ software isn't customizable enough for my satisfaction.

Having DSP already in-built into the cable ready for whatever IEM would make me use my Capri much more than I do now.

 

[riddicktbr]

hi guys, this is Grace from AAW. We have received numerous report that on low impedance and high sensitivity iems, capri produces a noticeable hissing. Unfortunately, even we tried, it is an issue that software isn't able to fix. however, we have developed a hardware fix on the amp circuitry. For the units that hasn't shipped, the fix is already applied(though there maybe some 1.2m mmcx variants which is already on their way, that has not had this fix). This fix will reduce hissing by approximately 70% on a 16ohm, 112dB spl iem, which is already very hard to detect.

If you are using a high sensitivity iem, you are welcome to sent it back to retrofit it. such fix is of course free of charge, but your will be liable for any shipping cost incurred in between. Do email support@aaw.me to arrange, thanks!

Can I send it to you even if I bought it from Null audio?

 

[Ynot1]

Is it possible to upload a personalized DSP EQ profile into the Capri cable, like Audeze's iSine cipher cable? I'd really want to have my W900's desktop EQ profile with me wherever I go, but obviously iOS' EQ software isn't customizable enough for my satisfaction.

Having DSP already in-built into the cable ready for whatever IEM would make me use my Capri much more than I do now.

You bring up a good point about eq and for that matter file formats.
Since all file formats are lossy to some degree at analog quantization, and most primarily do the best they can to preserve the quantized bits with the most compression, I think there is room to apply features like eq being added into the file format, because it's a file format you can do what ever you want in theory.
Furthermore I think bluetooth aptx can achieve lossless, from quantized bit stand point, by optimizing the compression from a bluetooth perspective. Anyway I only know enough to be dangerous and not enough to be useful, being a newb and all.

 

[crinacle]

You bring up a good point about eq and for that matter file formats.
Since all file formats are lossy to some degree at analog quantization, and most primarily do the best they can to preserve the quantized bits with the most compression, I think there is room to apply features like eq being added into the file format, because it's a file format you can do what ever you want in theory.
Furthermore I think bluetooth aptx can achieve lossless, from quantized bit stand point, by optimizing the compression from a bluetooth perspective. Anyway I only know enough to be dangerous and not enough to be useful, being a newb and all.

My problem is not with the concept of EQ but rather the complexity of the EQ applications available.

I do quite a bit of precise EQ adjustments with fiddling of Q-values and dB-boosting in the decimals, and there are little (if any) apps on iOS (or Android for that matter) that play to this level of customizability (and if they do it's limited within the app itself and not systemwide like I want it to be). Having a powerful EQ profile set up within the cable and having it systemwide the moment I plug it into my device is a huuuuuge plus-point for me.

 

[Ynot1]

I think we all would want an app that can eq more flexibly without restrictions. I wish I could write an app to at least verify if this would work. That is acording to what I remember from school, eqing in digital most likely uses fir filters and fir filters are just a bunch of coefficients or numbers. Furthermore some really smart guy named remez said his coefficients are optimal. But it comes at the prices of ripples and the thing is I don't know what ripples in the frequency domain sounds like in time domain. Anyway I can't prove anything that my professors said works, I just believes them so I can pass the class. Could somebody just write the darn app already. Thank you.

 

[Ynot1]

I have another dangerous idea, but it is nothing more than putting two and two together. They said AI can do what a human can do, but a human may not do it for a number of reasons. We know if a person sat down with a lot of time on their hands they can go through every sound recording ever made and start dissecting the sounds into separate channels. This way we not only can eq sound distributed in frequency, but eq the particular sound relative to the rest of the sounds. Talk about separation. Anyway I know AI can do this. But I don't know if AAW will some day include a cable that can for all intents and purposes have AI built in. Ok the last part I'm just kidding.

 

[eldss]

Is it possible to upload a personalized DSP EQ profile into the Capri cable, like Audeze's iSine cipher cable? I'd really want to have my W900's desktop EQ profile with me wherever I go, but obviously iOS' EQ software isn't customizable enough for my satisfaction.

Having DSP already in-built into the cable ready for whatever IEM would make me use my Capri much more than I do now.

I believe this has been asked before and AAW indicated that it would not be possible due to the manner in which the Capri hardware was designed (if I remember correctly). The only option would be to add an option for a bass boost or balanced mode. But if you look at the campaign video, it actually shows pictures of an EQ similar to that that Audeze utilizes. Agree with you that Apple's EQ presets are limited and I would sat are garbage at best. They all sound terrible.

 

[riddicktbr]

Both of my AAW Capri cables, MMCX and 2 pin seem to have terrible mics. I use the MMCX with SHure 535 and 2 pin with the Weston ES5. My callers can barely hear me and when i tested it, I seem to pick up a lot of the background noise. Background noise seems to bemuch clearer than my talking to some of my callers. Is it just my cables or is it a problem with all of the capri mics?

On a side note, the Shure LTG cable's mic and the audeze Cypher cables sound very clear on the mic to my callers.

 

[Ynot1]

Most balanced headphone cables don't support microphones? So I wonder if the software is using the wrong signaling pins.

 

[ELPCU]

I have 2 capri cables(both 2 pin), and both have hiss issue. I am assuming it is because of poor DAC.

I tried with my main CIEMs ( Hidition NT-6 & Viento-B ) and Cheap IEM. and every single situation, there is hiss.

Now, I am assuming this is DAC problem, and it is consistent---but it just does not make hiss sound when DAC is not operating.

When u turn on music or anything that make sound, it seems DAC in Capri have very slight operating time. It needs to boot up, and it miss about 0.5~1 sec amount of sound.

If you have one, then plug in, and try to play music which makes sound immediately. Capri will miss very beginning of music. about 0.5 sec-ish amount.

After Capri operates, it keeps making hissing sound, though it may be hard to hear if you hear loud music or depending on what kinds of music,

but if you go for youtube video or some kinds of movie, then when there should be no sound, there is hiss.

Hiss is over when DAC is not operating. When my music end/I do not turn on any more music, after about 5~10 sec, I can hear very small/short beeping sound and hissing sound over.

That's very likely when DAC is turned off; at least that's what I believe. Maybe it's because of my CIEM. My CIEM is extra sensitive one, so it can catch a lot of noise,

Hope future firmware will fix the issue, but currently, even newest firmware cannot handle it.

 

[ELPCU]

Most balanced headphone cables don't support microphones? So I wonder if the software is using the wrong signaling pins.

I do not think that's the reason.... Most balanced headphone cable is analog cable, so it is totally different story.... balanced cable do not need any software....

the reason why balanced cable do not support microphone is they need to use all 4 pins of 3.5mm headphone jack.

Most common one is unbalanced 3.5mm 3-pin(no mic/volume controller)
It uses
1. Left unit signal
2. Right unit signal
3. Ground for both left and right unit

but typical mic/volume controller 3.5mm 4-pin jack(mic/volume controller)
1. Left unit signal
2. Right unit signal
3. Ground for everything.
4. mic/volume controller (if your DAP/smartphone is not compatible with mic/volume controller, then it is okay. #4 is not being used so mic/volume controller won't work but 1,2,3 works fine, so other than mic/volume it works fine)

and balanced 3.5mm 4 pin jack would do
1. Left unit signal
2. Right unit signal
3. Ground for left unit
4. Ground for right unit.

And this is reason why it does not have a mic/volume controller. It is already using all 4 pins. and it is not compatible with typical 3.5mm device.
To make it work, you need to make it as a 5 pin design, which means it won't be compatible with any device except proprietary
If not all, absolutely most mic/volume controllers in 4 pin 3.5mm jack cable is for smartphone, because that's the biggest market.
And guess what, 5 pin cable will have ZERO compatibility with any smartphone. That's why we do not see balanced cable with mic/volume controller most of time.

But Capri do not uses 3.5mm jack, as you know. The key difference between typical balanced cable and Capri is location of DAC.
Typical balanced cable means, your DAC is in separate DAC or inside of DAP, and to keep purest signal, you intentionally not sharing ground unit between left and right.
If you share ground, then it will save cost, because your cable need less strand, but balanced cable is simply not doing it for sound quality.

On the other hand, Capri puts DAC on the cable, especially where cable starts to divide into left and right.
AAW advertised balance cable is such a big deal, but to me Capri is just naturally became balanced cable, because DAC is located on Y splitter.
It is even harder to make unbalanced cable with this circumstance here, because you gotta divide cable into 2 pieces someday; one is for left and another one is for right, unless u wanna turn on only one of left or right unit.
and if you put DAC on where cable starts divided, then it will be naturally balanced cable. BOOM.

It's likely they failed to putting good quality DAC in small form factor.

No wonder; they are not a gigantic company like Apple, though it is still very disappointing.

Dealing with a small chipset DAC without large quantity order is hard without putting high price tag.

 

[Somnambulist]

Got my returns form, be posting mine off to Singapore tomorrow. Back to the dongle for a while!

 

[Ynot1]

Thanks for the info. And I wonder what dac is in this one as well as the Accessport. I don't have totl iem that is super sensitive, but I hear no noise in the Accessport using Vivo XE800 which is pretty revealing. I do think Accessport came out first and they had a few bumps along the way, so I suspect they would get around to resolving this noise issue soon.

 

[SkyyBoy]

we are sorry that the cable didn't not arrive in time for your trip, but our shipping policy is flat across the board for the ig campaign, registered mail with tracking info. if you needed upgrade to ems or fedex, and informed our staff, i am sure they will be more than happy to comply. Of course given that you are willing to bear the tripled shipping cost as well.
That being said, I am happy to report that according to tracking, cable has arrived at your local facility, in less than 5 working days, which i think is very impressive for a 'cheapest' shipping method

To clarify, my email specifically stated my departure date. Had I been given the option, I would have paid for EMS (even though I hoped that you would have used EMS because of my deadline and the fact that you've had my money since January). However, you never gave me the option to upgrade.
Upon my return, I discovered that my Capri also has the manufacturing defect that causes hiss with my JH16pro. Unsurprisingly, the replacement Capri has not reached my country one week after being shipped.

Because the Capri did not arrive in time for my departure, I got a Fiio i1 at my first destination. Now that I have returned home and compared Fiio, and Capri, I can unequivocally say that the Fiio has better sound quality than Capri. The only advantage to Capri is because it's a single-cable solution. I join the others in this thread who are disappointed with the DAC used in Capri. Even if the updated Capri hardware fixes the hiss manufacturing defect, the Fiio will have better sound (assuming the updated Capri uses the same DAC). I just wish the Fiio wasn't so unwieldy.