[Brooko]

Not that strange mate.  If you have one louder than the other, the louder one will sound better.  You're also comparing from memory where I have the added advantage of being able to precisely volume match and quickly switch from one to the other, plus I can measure - when you know something is conclusively right it helps remove the bias that was there previously.  The only problem is that you now have bias the other way - but it doesn't really matter if the facts are correct.  Again - it just shows you're human.
 
The way to do things properly is remove as many conflicting bias as possible when you're testing.  Volume matched, unsighted - solely rely on your ears with no other stimulii.  And when you do that you'll find a lot of "myths" disappear.  The problem has never been with our ears - its with how the brain interprets the inputs.  And if those inputs are audible + physical + visual - it will use them all. We just want to isolate the audio though 

.
 
I know this is off-topic, but might help you understand.  I have an iFi iDSD - absolutely love it. And I can upsample up to DSD (basically upsample a redbook signal to DSD and send that to the iDSD DAC - all on the fly).  The iDSD then lights up a small aquamarine light. I've blind tested myself countless times, and I know there is no audible difference to me.  But for some strange reason the music sounds better when the light is on. I know it is placebo - but I can't help my brain telling me there is a difference - even though I know there isn't
 
The proof of the machine is in the pleasure it brings you.  But the last thing I would do is suggest people upsample to get a better sound.  I know its not true.  Doesn't stop me enjoying it myself though.

 

[audio123]

Psychology and Audio

 

[Arttt]

ö.Ö

 

[zhibli06]

To be honest, I think It has become a thing with that resistor cable~
 
I think it is very cool, to play with the monk in different ways, that is the fun of this hobby.
 
but I wanna point out some of my personal exp , with that resistor cable.
 
as far as I can recall, the only earphone that come with the resistor adapter is those BA or hybrid ones.
 
as they are ultra-easy to drive, most amp won't reach their minimum balance-sound-level, before it sounds tooo loud.
 
the only one, u got with my earphone is from UE triple fi 10.
 
and I did test them with the duke and other IEM.
 
Both my fans in China and I found that resistor adapter will hurt the "dynamic" of the sound.
 
even the best one kk can make for my friend, which is 17ohm, will hurt the sound.
 
as it is a very small stuff, ur resistor adapter will take up energy that was meant for the earbuds
 
so in the case of the monk , it takes up about 70% of the power of ur source.
 
as for the monk plus, it takes about 55% ~
 
not to even mention the obvious, u adding more stuff  (connector , cable ,plug) to the circuit ,
 
and i am not 100% sure, if those who make the resistor will do a very good job on pairing those resistor.
 
( it has been a huge problem for my friend, who was really into those adapters , of course , he eventually gave it up, cuz
 
We eventually turned down the gain a bit on the RA 2.0, so his utlra sensitive IEMs (like the jvc fx1100) can sing normally)
 
as for the monk and monk plus. again, I can't see any reason to use them myself, ( I would have test and gave a graph feedback like @Brooko did , btw, awesome work paul, thx for taking the time to clear things up for us)
 
I gave mine adapter to a friend , right after i dug them up and tried them with the duke and various other iem we have.
 
 
another interesting case is the legendary akg k1000, they have a big resistor ( the drive is only 8 ohms , i think ) to allow them being used with speaker amp directly, otherwise , the drive can easily over-loaded and burnt out. and I think they designed the sound to work like that.
and that is why, they are like the no.1 hard to drive can( if u can call them can) , cause the drives only get about 10-20% of the power.
 
Unlike the kk and ER4 , the Monk and Monk Plus are not designed to work with those adapters.
 
one more benefit from the adapter is to reduce ur source's background noise level~again, making it less sensitive.
 
so all in the all the only times , I will recommend u to use the adapters
 
A, ur source has a lot of background noise , that u can not stand.
 
B, ur amp has way too high of a gain (non of our amps have these issue, not eve the desktop ones, and we are already pretty high in gain level)
 
C, ur source sounds way worse in lower volume level
 
and I appreciate the effort guys in this thread has put in, and I think it is absolutely ok if u like the sound with the adapter,
but I think we should not argue about how much it improves the sound, well at least not without acknowledging how much it hurts them as well, I didn't wanna say anything, cuz it will make me sounds like that I am trying to push my more expansive gears.
 
We designed to the monk , so that guys can have a good taste of Hi-Fi without hurting the wallet, not to end the whole HiFi hobby by making people think they are the best earphone/headphone out there. 
 
Some can prefer the monk over hd600, I think it all comes down to personally taste.(and mostly the gear set-up)
 
If you think the monk is better than hd600 in general, then plz, it is time to upgrade ur gear ~
 
I am waiting in the group.
 
Cheers
 
Lee
 
(yes, I am showing off, we buy hi-end gear, so we can design better gears for u. and occasionally end a dispute with upper hand lolol 

 and my wife won't kill me if she doesn't know that the company is throwing tons of money to buy toys instead of taking the money home, so she can buy better shoes and stuff)

 

 

[Arttt]

for some reason monk+ sounds better when I'm drunk, right after 4-5th beer midrange gets so warm , highs so smooth and bass so deep...
how does Irish Ale  Kilkenny effect FR ... i don't know ...
 
Can someone please measure that ?  I need to know if its bias, and if measurements will show that Kilkenny actually doesn't effect the sound , ill stop drinking !!!

 

[yacobx]

  for some reason monk+ sounds better when I'm drunk, right after 4-5th beer midrange gets so warm , highs so smooth and bass so deep...
how does Irish Ale  Kilkenny effect FR ... i don't know ...
 
Can someone please measure that ?  I need to know if its bias, and if measurements will show that Kilkenny actually doesn't effect the sound , ill stop drinking !!!

you feel less so you can turn up the volume louder than normal

 

[Arttt]

nahhhh, i always have volume at ----------[]- , because I'm a real man ...

 

[yacobx]

  nahhhh, i always have volume at ----------[]- , because I'm a real man ...

high volume actually takes away from dynamic drivers.

 

[lookingforIEMs]

nahhhh, i always have volume at ----------[]- , because I'm a real man ...

Is your real name Ron swanson?

 

[audio123]

When u use dx80 u need an adapter

 

[jackwolf24]

for some reason monk+ sounds better when I'm drunk, right after 4-5th beer midrange gets so warm , highs so smooth and bass so deep...
how does Irish Ale  Kilkenny effect FR ... i don't know ...

Can someone please measure that ?  I need to know if its bias, and if measurements will show that Kilkenny actually doesn't effect the sound , ill stop drinking !!!

For the same reason i always felt like i was driving at 80kmh but the meter show 130kmh. Moral of the story is -- don't drink and monk..

 

[rcoleman1]

Received the new Monk+. One word...WOW! For 8USD total I wasn't expecting much of an improvement over the original Monk (which I still have). But man everything is there...highs, mids and the bass is even fuller. I'm amazed. How can something this cheap sound so good? Also I have a RA 2.0 on the way for my Zen 2.0.

 

[Arttt]

Monk kindaaa makes me wonder about high end buds , Zen 2.0 ...Crossroads HR-1 ...  Yuin PK1... , there is one catch thou, it has to be low impedance so i can drive it with iphone6 or iPad air without missing my home system too much when I'm  outside hmm ,and since ear buds don't isolate that much , to have them outside will be half-good thing because of all the noise that gets in the way.
 
Anyone wanna share the experience of having high end buds outside ? (without any portable dac/amps combos)

 

[audio123]

  Monk kindaaa makes me wonder about high end buds , Zen 2.0 ...Crossroads HR-1 ...  Yuin PK1... , there is one catch thou, it has to be low impedance so i can drive it with iphone6 or iPad air without missing my home system too much when I'm  outside hmm ,and since ear buds don't isolate that much , to have them outside will be half-good thing because of all the noise that gets in the way.
 
Anyone wanna share the experience of having high end buds outside ? (without any portable dac/amps combos)

ask king of earbuds @golov17

 

[Lorspeaker]

Arttt, what u need is to pack a RA2 amp along with the Zen2 , when u are out of your castle.