[slwiser]

@Kremer930; similar to my impressions so far..your is much more burned in than mine though.  I am using the DT1350 and Westone 4r for now. For both I am preferring balance mode.
 
Will get my ES5s sometime after next week.  I am going to be out of town when they come in so they will be sitting for a few days.
 

 

[thread]

Got my Mk3 today. The noise floor through the JH13 (balanced) is too bothersome for me in quiet passages, musical rests, and between tracks.

I've spent the last couplefew hours listening with the Ultra Micro DAC (single ended) and LCD-2 (balanced). When I tried my DL3 as a balanced source, I got some nasty clipping and distortion. It seems the balanced input on my unit is broked since SE-in is fine.

With the LCD-2 (balanced), though, there is no noticeable noise floor. The bass dial has a subtle effect, but it does seem to bring in some of the lower registers a bit which the LCD-2 rev2 can sometimes lack. It's sounding really nice with a lot of the great qualities that I find in my Rx Mk 1.

I appreciate the different sonic flavor that this amp brings to the table, but I'm not sure I can hang onto it given how it performs with the IEMs.

Keep in mind, though, I'm pretty picky about my noise floor

And disclaimer: Though I did offer to and follow through with building Ray a website, I hope my comments are welcome enough... I'm here for the hobby of it... to enjoy and compare two amazing portable balanced amps.

 

[KB]

Thread,
 
I would RMA that back to us to look at...
 
RMA
 
And or refund should you not be happy with it.
 
Thanks
 
Ken

 

[KB]

Quote:

I've had my MK3 for a few days and only had time to listen to my JH16 (balanced twag) from line out of HM801. I'm not sure if others commented on this yet but I can clearly hear hiss/hum with the amp on low gain and I hear channel imbalance at low volumes. To get past the imbalanced range I have to go to about 2:00 (with 12:00 being on/off) and it is already almost too loud for me. I will try it with my FitEar ToGo 334's once I get them back, and I will try it with some low impedance full sized cans later. 
 
My Protector out of my HM801 has a black background. I need more time with it before commenting on the sound compared to my Protector. For now, I'm liking what I'm hearing so far but the hum may be a deal breaker for me since I'll use this almost exclusively with IEMs - which it probably wasn't intended to do anyways. 
 
Anyone else hear this with their MK3? 

Hop ham,
 
If you want to send that back I can lower the gain on the low setting for you and shoot it back to you. I cant say 100% it will be what you require for your IEMs. IEMs for some people can be difficult to get the noise floor acceptable but I can further lower the gain. I just got a pair of FitEars from Keita and I just love them with the Mk3 what a wonderful product the 334s are. Also the Solo with the Mk3 is going to increase the gain vs just using a straight line out. I think the Solo is something like 2Vrms line out vs I think 1 on a ipod. 
 
I certainly want you to be happy with the amp.
 
Cheers,
 
Ken
 
PS: We are so happy to see so many people digging the new amp, thank you so much.

 

[Kremer930]

For a while during the break in process I thought that the RX3 may have been loosing some of the awesome bass that I loved at first. But after listening to it today with my JH16, I can confirm that it is seriously awesome. The bass texture and power makes me feel like neither the amp or the iems are ever going to reach their limits. Neither ever sounds like it is straining or even approaching its limits.

Listening today to Maroon 5 and Michael Buble at MSG, both live albums, sounded seriously great. The sense of space is just astounding. When the crowd starts clapping at the end of a song it is like someone put a second set of cans over my iems. The sound is so wide.

I agree that the gain setting, even on low, is very high when using the CLAS and JH16's. I normally listen at 9 o'clock. Turn on point is 12. I am pretty sure that the DT1350 run around the same volume points. It probably makes sense to have Ken wind it back if you are going to run the CLAS.

There is no chance that I am sending it back though. I don't want to be without this amp for even a day.

Thanks Ken for all of your effort in building such a fantastic portable amp. This amp not only is accurate but also has a bass texture that adds some fun and liveliness to the music. Adding in the spaciousness is just the icing on the cake.

 

[hop ham]

Quote:

Hop ham,
 
If you want to send that back I can lower the gain on the low setting for you and shoot it back to you. I cant say 100% it will be what you require for your IEMs. IEMs for some people can be difficult to get the noise floor acceptable but I can further lower the gain. I just got a pair of FitEars from Keita and I just love them with the Mk3 what a wonderful product the 334s are. Also the Solo with the Mk3 is going to increase the gain vs just using a straight line out. I think the Solo is something like 2Vrms line out vs I think 1 on a ipod. 
 
I certainly want you to be happy with the amp.
 
Cheers,
 
Ken
 
PS: We are so happy to see so many people digging the new amp, thank you so much.

Thanks Ken. I will take you up on that offer. Great customer service, as usual. 

 

[thread]

Thanks much for the quick reply, Ken. I do wonder how low the gain/noise floor can go... It seems pretty high right now as I don't even need to switch away from low gain with any of my headphones, and I have very little play on the volume knob in any case.

If we can get the noise down to "barely audible" I could perhaps live with it, but it seems like there's quite a ways that the gain could be reduced. (The gain doesn't seem like it's going to be "too low" any time soon…)

Anyway, it sounds like Ken is going to experiment with his new FitEar IEM's and hopefully come back with a plan to make this amp quiet enough for me and other IEM listeners.

Thank you, Ken !

 

[KB]

Quote:

Thanks much for the quick reply, Ken. I do wonder how low the gain/noise floor can go... It seems pretty high right now as I don't even need to switch away from low gain with any of my headphones, and I have very little play on the volume knob in any case.
If we can get the noise down to "barely audible" I could perhaps live with it, but it seems like there's quite a ways that the gain could be reduced. (The gain doesn't seem like it's going to be "too low" any time soon…)
Anyway, it sounds like Ken is going to experiment with his new FitEar IEM's and hopefully come back with a plan to make this amp quiet enough for me and other IEM listeners.
Thank you, Ken !

 
Thread,
 
I am not having any problems using my FitEars 334 with the Mk3 as it is and am saying that the stock amp is not just fine for IEMs I feel it is for most. I think that some people are very particular with IEMs everyone hears things very different. We want to do the best we can to cover the most sensitive IEMs and the hardest to drive headphones so yeah I would like to try and help. I cant guarantee that this the Mk3 is going to be for you even after the adjustment that I will make for you but am willing to try!
 
Thanks
 
ken

 

[thread]

Sounds like a plan to me, Ken. I'd absolutely keep this amp if we can get it quiet enough. It really sung with my LCD-2's last night.. I had trouble taking them off.

And thanks for being so great to work with.

(Ken has generously helped me a couple times now with problems regarding out-of-warranty Rx's.)

Sent from my Droid 3 from Tapatalk 2

 

[slwiser]

I may have to retract what I said below....need to listen a bit more since coming back from supper I can't seem to detect what I thought I was hearing as noted below. Right now it could have been a noisy connection.
 
Just got my Westone ES5 today and there is a definite ambient noise at a very low level, I have not heard this with either my Westone 4r or my DT1350s.  They both sound great using the balanced out of this unit.
 
I am going to listen a week or so to make sure what I thought I was hearing was correct.  This unit has been great without any issues until reading some of the above post.  Maybe I just got carried away.
 
Maybe Ken can determine what level of sensitivity is the sound floor and publish that for customers to determine if they want to test the whatever sound level floor there may be for themselves.  

 

[Kremer930]

You had me all nervous about the continuous background noise as I had never before listened for it. I normally hit play and then bring up the volume.

I just tried It out with my iPod classic to CLAS to RX3 with JH16. Interconnects are silver Piccolino made by Qusp. Headphone cable is Whiplash TWAg v2. Listening in balanced mode.

My unit makes no noise at all!

I tested it with the iPod off and CLAS off, then introduced one component at a time. No noise. I then turned the volume up to max with no source material playing. Still perfectly silent. I am also in a perfectly silent external environment.

I am now listening to Buble again thinking Wow, I love this rig! I wasn't planning on doing any listening but gee it is hard to take the JH16's out of my hears and power down the RX3.

 

[atty101]

Why does everything I want/love have to cost so much...?

 

[Kremer930]

To test if you REALLY want it or not.

If all components were super cheap we would likely have other problems to deal with. Like, which of my 10 portable rigs do I use today. At least I don't have that problem. Life is good! Especially so with my current rig.

 

[sunninho]

Quote:

Why does everything I want/love have to cost so much...?

 
Seriously.  If this was $150 cheaper, I'd already be enjoying it.

 

[KB]

Slwlser,
 
Sounds like the noise floor?, sensitive IEMs are going to pick up the NF in the amp. Have you tried it with a ipod and LOD instead of your DX100? Please keep listening and PM me and details.
 
Thank you sir.
 
ken