Yeah I am guessing thats what I am saying.
I heard hiss using:
Noble Savant
ASG 2.5
IE800
ALO Lyra
UM Mentor
I did not hear hiss with my Tralucent Ref1's, well not enough to bother me.
Also hiss is one of those things. While all of those hissed for me I was more than willing to put up with it due to the advantages of using the Alien (Sound and portability).
All this being said I know there are a lot worse sources out there for hiss.
I would just love to see a hiss free Alien is all
Sadly I prefer the brushed look over the new look. But the gold would go nicely with some of my other bling gear
Yeh, I haven't tested my Alien with anything other than my two aforementioned IEMs, but seeing as the EPH100's are often reported as being pretty hissy, and they aren't at all hissy with the Alien I was therefore pretty confident in marking the Alien as a very low noise player. So I am quite alarmed to hear that hiss was detectable for you with your array of headphones... could it be not all Aliens are equal in this regard?
Anyway, the idea to me to have a lower noise Alien seems ridiculous as to my ears it had already succeeded 110% in this regard, so it's interesting to hear of others who haven't had that experience.
Oh, No. I ordered Yam Eph100 last week and it is on its way. Didn't know it is hissy.
Please don't fret! Only with a couple of my Cowon's did I hear a lot of hiss, on my AP100 and Shozy Alien the hiss is non existent. And I did mention that they are a rival to my $600USD PFE 232's in overall sound quality, this coming from a $80AUD purchase is truly a remarkable achievement.
No... I think you purchased very wisely and will be very happy.
I am newbie and this can a dumb question. I guess that Alien does not have dedicated line out. What happens if I connect with external amp by connecting using 3.5mm male to male short cable? Will it drive high impedance headphone?
I double amped my Alien Shozy with Soundmagics A10 amp and really enjoyed what I heard. Double amping is the term used when using an amp connected to a DAP's HO instead of LO. What's happening is the Alien Shozy (or whatever DAP) is still using it's internal amp, then the signal is once again being amped by the portable amp therefore 'double amping'. A LO on a device is supposed to bypass the internal DAPs amp entirely and therefore just use the portable amps amp do all the work, because double amping can be problematic. If there is a flaw with the internal amp, and you can't bypass it, then yer just amplifying sh!t, which is not ideal.
But in the case of Shozy Alien it's really not a issue as the HO is extremely good, low noise and very flat FRR. I would argue it is prolly superior than a lot of LO on other DAPs similarly or more expensively priced.
Thank you so much. Great to know and learned something new If HPO works with external amp, when do we need dedicated LO? Is it just to connect external speaker unit?
Ideally LO's are used for external amps, thereby allowing the user to take benefits of what the DAP brings (features, portability, being able to read vast amount if files etc etc) but use the users preferred amp instead of the one housed within.
I use LO on my AP100 when connected to my car stereo in an effort to avoid its internal amp, but not all LO's are made equal, the AP100 for example still allows for EQ and other DSPs in effect, as well as altering volume, for sure I don't notice a significant difference between the HO and LO. Bottom line, not all LO's are made equal and close attention needs to be paid if hooking a DAP of choice to certain equipment is a priority for you.
