[tme110]

Just a note for people looking at doing the low-gain mod - I often use grado's on my -10 without issue and I've never had to use the low gain setting at all. I've never tested it with iem's but probably never will.

 

[moimd]

Just tried with my SE535. I am at 3-4 on volume on low gain with the -7dB low gain mod.
Quote:

Just a note for people looking at doing the low-gain mod - I often use grado's on my -10 without issue and I've never had to use the low gain setting at all. I've never tested it with iem's but probably never will.

 

 

[ohhgourami]

Quote:

The HE-6 does.  The HE-500 does not.

 
its all good, reterminating is pretty easy. cardas solder makes it easy

 

[Stereodude]

Quote:

its all good, reterminating is pretty easy. cardas solder makes it easy

My plan is to re-terminate.  I've got plenty of experience with a soldering iron.  I just want to make sure I'm not going to take advantage of the 30 return policy on the HE-500's first.

 

[drez]

Just out of interest I have started playing with using the high gain output setting on the NFB-10 SE to drive my LCD-2.2 and I have convinced myself that I hear better (cleaner and more even) decay and an overall slightly more taught sound from the high gain setting.  Does anyone else have any input here?
 
EDIT: oops swapped the E with the S.  I can see myself doing this a few time lol.

 

[ohhgourami]

I always listened with high gain.  With volume being the same, I do think high gain sounds slightly better.  So my experience agrees with yours.

 

[olor1n]

I compared the single ended output of the 10SE in high and low gain through the LCD-2 and HD650. An SPL meter with a CD spacer at the end of the mic (to enclose the pads) was used to volume match. If there's a difference between the gain modes, it was too subtle for me to perceive.
 
In balanced mode, I mainly listened to the LCD-2 in low gain for the finer adjustment on the volume control. Where a recording's dynamic compression (or lack thereof) allowed it though, high gain seemed to have a touch more authority and slam in balanced mode. I didn't bother measuring this though and the difference could certainly be the lack of precise volume matching.

 

[tme110]

yea, my guess is the difference is caused by how hard it is to match volume. Even being only slightly off will make a large perception change.  Gain change shouldn't do anything besides change where you are on the volume control and Kingwa has stated he makes no other change to the circuit/

 

[Zeddley]

I'm quite keen on the 10se. Listened to a comparison the other day of the 10ES with a burson 160ds and it fairs quite well.

 

[Argo Duck]

Hi Zeddley, the 10ES fares "quite well" compared to the 160, or vice versa? Or you meant there were about as good as each other?
 
Any more specific impressions to share about how they differed and/or were similar?

 

[ohhgourami]

IMO, the 10ES is better than the Burson 160D.  The DAC section of the Burson is obviously inferior.

 

[jtiis]

Im in the same boat as you Stereodude.
 
Today hooked up the 10Se, SBT and HE500s for the first time. Only had low bitrate mp3s in the office to use (via USB) but even that sounded good. Can't wait for my qaudio cables to arrive and to play FLAC files. Early Xmas is good Xmas! 

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

Im in the same boat as you Stereodude.
 
Today hooked up the 10Se, SBT and HE500s for the first time. Only had low bitrate mp3s in the office to use (via USB) but even that sounded good. Can't wait for my qaudio cables to arrive and to play FLAC files. Early Xmas is good Xmas! 

how much do u like the he500's? also from 1 to 10.

 

[Stereodude]

Quote:

Just tried with my SE535. I am at 3-4 on volume on low gain with the -7dB low gain mod.

I tried my brand new Westone 4's last night on my brand new NFB-10SE (-7dB Low Gain) playing FLAC files via USB.  I found the comfortable volume range to be about 10-15.  On high it was 3-4.

 

[Stereodude]

Quote:

Today hooked up the 10Se, SBT and HE500s for the first time. Only had low bitrate mp3s in the office to use (via USB) but even that sounded good. Can't wait for my qaudio cables to arrive and to play FLAC files. Early Xmas is good Xmas! 

Who did you buy the HE500's from and which cable came with them?  After the thick Cardas cable apparently some shipped with a HE6 like OCC cable (without the 4-pin XLR) and later shipments have a silver cable.
 
Early Christmas rocks!