Nirmalanow
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2006
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I fooled around some more with the adapter. Unfortunately the headphone output of my Iriver is not quite loud enough for the REOs on all songs, and if I add the 75 ohm resistor, then the volume drops even more. This limited my ability to really hear the difference with and without the adapter
Nonetheless, contrary to my expectations, from what I could hear, the adapter made less of a difference with the headphone out from the Iriver than it did on the Predator. One possible factor is that on the Predator using the resistor meant that I could easily use the high gain setting on the gain switch. I have never quite understood if there is really a difference between a gain switch and just turning up the volume (although I do understand the purpose is to give a more useful volume range to the volume control). But I do seem to like the sound better with the adapter and the gain switch on high than the sound with the adapter and the gain switch on medium (with volume levels matched). It seems like the high gain setting allows the Predator to really take control of the headphones for a tighter and fuller sound. Like someone just added 20 pounds to the singers body on vocals
I remember reading a review by Srajan on 6moons.com of the CIAudio amp where he said somewhat the same thing: that his low impedance headphones sounded better with the switch set for high impedance cans. The difference is even more noticeable with the adapter in place than it is switching between high and medium gain without including the adapater. Again it sounds like the Predator has something to grab onto and just takes firmer control of the heaphones. Of course with the adpater, the REOs have an impedance of 139 ohms, so they are no longer low impedance, which may also explain why they respond so well to amplification, and do not improve much with the weaker output on my DAP.
Then I tried switching the adapter in and out while feeding my Predator from my Dell laptop music server with uncompressed WAV files instead of feeding it with the Iriver line out (and compressed OGG level 8 files). And once again, contrary to my expectations the difference was even greater with the higher bit rate files. I thought the better files would sound almost as good without the adapter, but there was a even more noticeable smoothing of the sound. It is possible that the usb ouput of my laptop has a bit of noise that is added to the sound, because there is a very definite sense of cleaner and smoother sound along with the added body and weight when I use the adapter. It seems to take away a bit of high Freq hash or noise that I could not have said was there until I heard the music without it.
It was pretty clear that when I was listening without the adapter, I was kind of in a hurry to put it back in and hear the difference again. Whereas when I was using the adapter, I would just get carried away with the music and forget to listen for changes in the sound anymore.
Anyways it is an inexpensive experiment for only $18 on Ebay or less if you can make an adaptor cable yourself. And I guess if it did not work for you, you could sell it on here and recoup some of the cost.
Added later: I forgot to mention two things: with the added sense of control the REOs do better now with more complicated music at keeping everything separated. Before they could get a little congested with complex pieces. And also instruments sound more natural and real with the adapter. Maybe it is the removal of the high freq hash or a kind of digital harshness with the adapter that gives instruments a more natural sounding tone. I won't go so far as to say the REOs are a whole new headphone because I was enjoying them a lot before I tried this, but I am loving the changes brought on by the adapter.
Nonetheless, contrary to my expectations, from what I could hear, the adapter made less of a difference with the headphone out from the Iriver than it did on the Predator. One possible factor is that on the Predator using the resistor meant that I could easily use the high gain setting on the gain switch. I have never quite understood if there is really a difference between a gain switch and just turning up the volume (although I do understand the purpose is to give a more useful volume range to the volume control). But I do seem to like the sound better with the adapter and the gain switch on high than the sound with the adapter and the gain switch on medium (with volume levels matched). It seems like the high gain setting allows the Predator to really take control of the headphones for a tighter and fuller sound. Like someone just added 20 pounds to the singers body on vocals
Then I tried switching the adapter in and out while feeding my Predator from my Dell laptop music server with uncompressed WAV files instead of feeding it with the Iriver line out (and compressed OGG level 8 files). And once again, contrary to my expectations the difference was even greater with the higher bit rate files. I thought the better files would sound almost as good without the adapter, but there was a even more noticeable smoothing of the sound. It is possible that the usb ouput of my laptop has a bit of noise that is added to the sound, because there is a very definite sense of cleaner and smoother sound along with the added body and weight when I use the adapter. It seems to take away a bit of high Freq hash or noise that I could not have said was there until I heard the music without it.
It was pretty clear that when I was listening without the adapter, I was kind of in a hurry to put it back in and hear the difference again. Whereas when I was using the adapter, I would just get carried away with the music and forget to listen for changes in the sound anymore.
Anyways it is an inexpensive experiment for only $18 on Ebay or less if you can make an adaptor cable yourself. And I guess if it did not work for you, you could sell it on here and recoup some of the cost.
Added later: I forgot to mention two things: with the added sense of control the REOs do better now with more complicated music at keeping everything separated. Before they could get a little congested with complex pieces. And also instruments sound more natural and real with the adapter. Maybe it is the removal of the high freq hash or a kind of digital harshness with the adapter that gives instruments a more natural sounding tone. I won't go so far as to say the REOs are a whole new headphone because I was enjoying them a lot before I tried this, but I am loving the changes brought on by the adapter.
