Quick to respond and quick to crap. Thanks!

V-moda bass freqs. They retail for ~$50-60 (not sure) but I got mine on ebay for $17 shipped. Its not an over-the-ear, and it has more bass than anything mentioned above. I'm talking so much bass that I you'll wince.

Hmm, $65, painful. LOL. Luckily I'm heading to Ottawa in 2 weeks so I guess I'll just have to pony up to get the true MS1000 experience. Thanks nickchen.

OK. I just bought this (note, not at the price listed). So now where is the best place to get GS1000 pads for a guy stuck in Toronto, Canada?

Would the MS1ki be greatly affected by using hd414 yellow pads instead of the GS1000 pads? If so what would be the effect?

Try a used electric avenues pa2v2. They will warm/brighten your headphones and provide the power to drive them. They won't really do much else that a really high end amp will.

The s9's glass will probably not shatter or even scratch, seeing as its made of gorilla glass. Is it that easy to brick? I've never bricked, and I don't want to try it. But I have flashed the firmware and put in a custom UI with no problems. I can't speak about cowon's service either...

Thread from the dead! I have both e5 and pa2v2. I'd say the pa2v2 is a way better amp. The e5 just amplifies, as others have said. The pa2v2 makes the sound more full. Though I've noticed it tends to boost the higher frequencies disproportionately to the bass. The bass boost on the e5...

Quote: Originally Posted by molokovellocet My S9 paired with IE8's BBE Viva is pretty good. Viva 2 and Maestro boost bass too much for these phones. I guess you don't like bass heavy music? I use ie8s as well but BBE Viva sounds too light on bass. Maestro is good with the mids...

I got my ie8s from an ebay vendor for $285 (shipped conus), but one that is very reputable. We ended up dealing outside of ebay to save him ebay fees and get me a discount in the process. He threw another year of in-house warranty on top of the 2 yr Sennheiser OEM warranty too. I've checked...

Quote: Originally Posted by dfkt Thanks for your replies, guys. I think I'm just having a few "bad sound days". I've had a cold and a slight flu, and actually no music sounds overly engaging to my ears at the moment. I think it's indeed mostly psychological/physiological "sibilance"...

I've regularly flown with iems in my ears. That includes during take-off, cruising, and landing. I just swallow whenever I feel pressure on my ears. I don't take out my iems either. I don't really see a problem with using them, but I've been told by some air attendants to take them out.

Quote: Originally Posted by 1138 My modest, first-timer rigs. An 8GB iPod nano fatty and a 2GB Sansa Clip refurb with the Shure SE210 and Koss KSC75 from that Radio Shack sale last year. You use Shure e210s? Lord have mercy... Yes I own them too, but only...

Quote: Originally Posted by stingx Almost 3 years old and my 810i still gets fantastic battery life. Actually, if not for disposable income and curiosity, I really had no reason to stop using it as my main portable. Same. I still have my w810i. Not only is it a great pmp, its...

I used my w810i as my pmp for a long time. It was actually quite good, I never complained. Now though I switched to a blackberry, which sucks as a media player due to virtually no low end. And it dies very quickly if I use it as a pmp.

Quote: Originally Posted by dfkt Pairing an IE8 with a FiiO is like eating lobster with ketchup... LMAO. Yes the fiio was a bit of an impulse buy. Hopefully it synergizes better with some of my other phones then.

I've been using ie8s with my s9 and they sound very well balanced. Especially with silicone tips (foam tips make it sound too dark imo). But I'm getting a fiio e5 soon, hopefully the ie8 responds well to it.

Older rockboxed iPod with LOC + amp sounds like you're best bet.

I agree with ^. Triplefi is known to be a bright sounding iem. The sony X would balance that out better than the cowon s9. But cowon has more format support for audio and video (video on the cowon looks awesome).

I use only flac for my portable. Yes with 16gb of space I can't fit all my albums on there. But I do feel like I can hear the difference in the low end (I'm a huge bass freak). Flac files just seem more defined in bass. BTW my setup is cowon s9 > senn ie8 (fiio e5 is in the mail)

Quote: Originally Posted by KromaXamorK You're going to love it. Is that a custom gui you're using? Looks way better than the Aero G2 I'm using. Care to share?

Oh, yea I'm using v2.41 and ie8s. I'll try the update.

I just wanted to know which EQ setting others are using for their s9s. I switch between Viva 2 and BBE headphone 3, depending on the bass thats on the track. But if someone knows or made an EQ with similar bass and more forward mids and highs, like Rock, I'd like to know.

Honestly I don't know if flac is worth it over high bitrate mp3. I've been testing various genres that I have encoded in flac and mp3. Its very hard to for me to tell the difference, it feels mostly psychological. But I'm only using shure e210s. I get my "good" sound gear next week.

I decided to go with the cowon s9. Flac support was the thing that swayed me. I tried my friend's s9 and was impressed with it. I plan to mod my UI though with the aero ultimate g1 mod. I'm using senn ie8. I think I'm one of the few that didn't go with sony/ie8 combo.