[Barra]

I'm confused right now ... should I get Beyerdynamic T90 or Sennheiser HD700 or Sennhesier Momentum. Right now have access to AKG K701 (which paired great with Calyx M) and Sennheiser HD650 (haven't try with Calyx M yet).
Appreciate any suggestion

I went to hear the momentum and came home with the hd700 which I am totally in love with right now. Your choice obviously comes down to signature preference, but the momentum while sounding nice had the pedestrian low res, bassy beats v signature that's works great with low quality modern recordings and pop. On the other hand the hd700 gets you 90 to 95 percent of the hd800 performance straight out of a portable dx90 or x5 setup - no expensive desktop required. So if you want audiophile resolution, clarity, texturing and performance, you can easily eliminate the momentum from consideration. Heard good things about the t90, but haven't heard it. But in comparing the hd800 signature to the t1, the hd800 was another significant level up IMO. I am assuming the t90 shares a similar signature to the t1 like the 700 to the 800. Hope that helps, but always audition if you can.

By the way, I expect that the Caylx M's warmer signature would tame the slight brightness in the hd700's signature and make great use of the hd700's masterful texturing for an awesome pairing.

 

[gracky]

External PSU:
I believe M sounds better with an external PSU. I was using 1A iphone power adapter (apple product) and it sounded quite... well very good. Compared to the battery sound, it gave a deeper sound stage and better definition. But a linear power should be better I thought. Recently from local used market, I've got a 5V linear power made by audio-gd, a variation of the class-A power supply for their usb interface. It sounds even better. Compared to the battery driven or switching power driven sound, F-range was extended, it gives yet deeper sound stage and treble became far more refined, silky and sweet. It sounds sweet, seductive, sexy, but it is by no way a sweet only monotone sound. You can tell Hilary Hahn's cold and reserved tone from Johanna Martzy's sweet and warm tone very easily. Yet the overall presentation became sweeter, pleasanter and sexier. I spent whole of the last night listening to almost only female vocals. IMO it will be worth to try a good linear external PSU for M.
 
Unfortunately, South Korean governmental regulation prohibits making/selling a linear PSU for consumer use. Ridiculous. Dr. Yi, D&A CEO, said they made a linear PSU for their 24/192 dac (also USB fed, so the PSU will work for M also) but they can't mass produce nor sell it! -_-; But searching for a better PSU might be considerable.

 

[audionewbi]

I doubt it, linear PSU doesn't bypass batter, the device is always powered by battery regardless the charger connected.

i don't hear a difference when i use M with or without charger.

 

[gracky]

I doubt it, linear PSU doesn't bypass batter, the device is always powered by battery regardless the charger connected.

Is it possible the current flows out from the battery and flows into the battery at the same time? I think the battery has only a pair of terminals. 

 

[SilverEars]

I doubt it, linear PSU doesn't bypass batter, the device is always powered by battery regardless the charger connected.

i don't hear a difference when i use M with or without charger.

I was always curious about this.  Somebody may have a definite answer to this, but I suspect that the source of power to charge the battery and output the power to the M's circuit would be the charger.  For example, if you using navigation function on your big screen smartphone while your car is charging, it will not charge as fast, and I'm guessing that some of the power that power provided by the charger is also being used by the navigation function and the display so it will either charge slower than if you weren't using the device or not really charge at all if the the power that is used for navigation is more than what the power supply is supplying.  If you use a 1A usb charger and use gps and navigation with screen on for a Galaxy S4, the battery will ether not charge or drain more.  If it's draining, the circuit is using the PS's power and the battery's.  If it's not charging that means, what the smartphone is using is what is being supplied by the PS.  Thus I use 2A charger for my S while using GPS in my car.
 
So, I would think if what the M is using is lower than PS's supply power, it's using PS's power and charging the battery.  
 
It's like this, a current is running through the line to a load(a battery to charge it), then all of a sudden another wire taps into it, making another load(circuit of the M), this means the PS's current is split, supplying both, the M and the battery.

 

[audionewbi]

Sure if its designed that way but untill we know for fact it is just going to be an expensive experiment.

i hear ni difference between my apple charger and laptop USB.

 

[CosmicHolyGhost]

would this experiment run the risk of damaging the internal battery?

 

[gracky]

Of course the voltage should be 5v regulated, and the max current would be about 2A. I heard that M does not draw more than 2A from a charger.

 

[cooperpwc]

  Of course the voltage should be 5v regulated, and the max current would be about 2A. I heard that M does not draw more than 2A from a charger.

 
I am doing well with a 1.6 A charger. I am also thinking that 2 A (e.g. iPad) charger might make sense.
 
I am not convinced that you can hear a sound difference though. It is still 5 volts and battery power is as clean as it gets. (A component like the Meier Stepdance / Quickstep amp that accepts higher voltages externally than the internal battery is a better candidate for sound quality improvements.)

 

[gracky]

   It is still 5 volts and battery power is as clean as it gets. (A component like the Meier Stepdance / Quickstep amp that accepts higher voltages externally than the internal battery is a better candidate for sound quality improvements.)

 
I expected the battery would sound best so I was surprised when I realized actually the wall power sounds better. IMO with switching power, the sonic merits of wall power over battery are mainly rigidness of images and deeper sound stage, yet I don't feel degrading in background quietness or texture in trebles by a switching wall power. I feel the sonic merits are mainly related to the energy, so I think the merits mainly come from the ability to draw currents of wall power plus the internal filtering of power lines is quite well implemented in M. We now know that M is a quite battery eater. And improvement in sound color and texture by a linear power is quite reasonable I think. Of course the improvement by the wall power will depend on the quality of power lines. In my workplace where dozens of crap PCs an office running, I don't think the wall power sounds better. 

 

[angelo898]

how wall power will ever sound any better than a dedicated battery astounds me

 

[productred]

Anyone updated from 0.95 to 0.96? What's the experience like?
 
I'm now updating, the screen is now showing the treble clef logo for a bit too long for my liking, so it that normal? No progress shown whatsoever. Just the treble clef.

 

[AnakChan]

   
Please do. I am curious as to whether you find a difference between the low ohm BA and low ohm dynamic IEMs, the former driven well and the latter not.
 
(For me, the issue with my dynamic IEMs has been distortion, addressed completely by putting an amp between the M and the IEM. I have a 15 ohm adapter on the way for testing, not ideal the but the best that I can get on eBay before I get something bespoke - or ideally Calyx provides the rumoured adapter.)

 
I forgot to follow up on this. So I'm comparing between the HM-901/Balanced amp module (fw 1.085 April '14 version) & Calyx M (fw 0.96) :-
 
1) JHA Roxannes
    - mids on the Calyx M seems fuller (which is closer to what I'd expect) compared to the HM-901. Stage width on the Calyx M is narrower than the HM-901. Still overall decent presentation by the Calyx M
2) FitEar TG!334
   - same with Rox. The mids are more prominent on the Calyx M than the HM-901.
3) FitEar MH335DW-SR
   - the same with the MH335DW-SR although with this, I kinda feel it's leaning a little towards the lower mids that's pushed forward.
4) Noble K10's
   - the mids are again more prominent on the Calyx M but with this, the trebles seems a little more rolled off compared to the HM-901. I didn't notice this with the other BA's above. Combined with the commonality of soundstage width as with other BA's, the Calyx M feels somewhat more "compressed".
 
Comparing back 'n forth between the HM-901/balanced amp/v1.085 vs the Calyx M 0.96, ignoring the sound stage difference, the Calyx M feels somewhat more linear than the HM-901 which seems to give a little more of a U-shaped presentation across all 3 of these IEMs. What's funny is that I never considered the HM-901/balanced amp as "U-shaped" prior to this test.
 
That's all tests I've done so far. I don't have any DD IEMs aside from the loaner Ditas which I've already commented on. It's rather unusual on how (multi)BA differs from DDs on the Calyx M vs another player.

Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to test and share my thoughts.

 

[productred]

  Anyone updated from 0.95 to 0.96? What's the experience like?
 
I'm now updating, the screen is now showing the treble clef logo for a bit too long for my liking, so it that normal? No progress shown whatsoever. Just the treble clef.

 
After the screen stuck at that logo for an hour, I finally decided to reboot, thx god that works and now it's upgrading normally............and when it's working normally it's a breeze.

 

[Kiats]

After the screen stuck at that logo for an hour, I finally decided to reboot, thx god that works and now it's upgrading normally............and when it's working normally it's a breeze.

Sorry I missed this earlier. The FW download for 0.96 is much easier to instal. A few of us struggled with the thumb gymnastics required by previous FW updates...