Big G
100+ Head-Fier
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- Aug 30, 2005
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AudioLineout: Cardas wired dock connector for Ipod..
I recently plunged headlong into the Headphone scene after purchasing a 4th generation 40 gig Ipod. Not content with the crappy sound quality of Ipod ear buds supplied, knowing their was much better available for little expenditure I started researching on the web to find a suitable – Portable headphone replacement, which lead me to the online Headphone community Head-Fi.
Visiting the Head-Fi website soon became a daily occurrence for me, reading as much as possible before making my purchasing my first semi decent pair of phones: the Sennheiser PX-100.
These first pair of decent headphones were a revelation for me, realizing the unforseen resolution available through headphone listening I was addicted, listening for hours on end through my Mac G5 workstation and Ipod when on the go I couldn’t get enough, it had re-invigorated music for me.
I now found myself being able to connect with familiar music as never before, finding much more intimacy and micro detail within familiar recordings, which had me listening to my whole collection of music over and over, completely amazed and bemused by what I had been missing all these years!
Seeking to delve deeper to see how much more could be revealed without spending a fortune, I soon purchased a pair of Grado SR80’s shortly after selling the SR80’s to a friend to grab the Grado HF-1’s whilst they were available through a limited run of 451 items to Head-Fi members.
Reading all of the rave reviews of the HF-1, the hype got to me and I just had to have them….. Curse you Head-Fi!
Needing a headphone amplifier to bring the best out of the Grado HF-1 led me deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit which is my compulsive disorder, I then purchased portable amp to go with my Ipod. Again after much research I decided on the Portaphile V2^2.
Excited by what the Portaphile amp had added to my listening pleasure with added dynamics ambience and detail, I am now convinced that an amp was now a necessity for bringing out the most in headphone listening.
I was now on the hunt to find the ultimate interconnect for mating the Ipod to the Portaphile amp.
I had seemingly purchased every different connector available at the time, finally settling on what I felt to be a benchmark for transparency and neutrality. Kimber Kable’s GQ, mini to mini Interconnect which I had custom made to 8” length for better portability, connected to the Ipod via the “Pocket Dock “.
I was quite content with this set-up for some time, my only grudge being that the Kimber Kable was quite stiff and cumbersome, often dislodging the non locking pocket dock from the ipod, especially when used portably i.e. in a backpack. Causing an interruption to the fun not to mention the added strain on the input jacks of the amplifier.
In my search for a compact replacement, I stumbled across the AudioLineout connectors, made by Head-Fi member Kenneth Ball aka: Cletus Bocephust.
Ken had created exactly the connector I was after, a compact, flexible, high quality solution for connecting an ipod to amp.
Doing away with a second 3.5mm plug and associated soldering joints Ken has taken high quality copper Cardas cable, arranged in a tri strand Litz braid and soldered directly into an aftermarket Ipod docking plug. Utilizing only the 3 audio pins required for audio signal, for reduced clutter and purer signal transfer. The amplifier end of the cable is terminated with a Neutrik 3,5mm gold plug all soldered using Cardas silver solder.
This was seemingly about as close as you could get to permanently hardwiring the Ipod and amp together!
After speaking with Ken and reading the notes on his website regarding his product, I felt assured I would be receiving a quality product. Ken has strived to make his product perfect, after many iterations and design configurations he has arrived at his current design offered on his website http://www.audiolineout.com/
From our discussions he is also able to cater for custom lengths, cable color / material and plug types.
I proceeded to place order and the cable arrived to my address in Australia just over a week later.
The cable is very well made, with good attention to detail. Both ends of the cable having strain relief to help prevent cable fatigue and stress on the solder joints, upon close inspection I noticed all of the joints were well executed, being nice and shiny and using minimal solder, Ken had gone to the extra trouble of filing off any excess solder from the outside of the joints closest to the plugs sleeve to prevent any fouling, along with using a Teflon inner sleeve.
Everything was looking very encouraging on the build front, now to see how it sounded!
On first listen to some very familiar music, I was surprised by how revealing this connector was over my previous Kimber I.C and pocket dock combo, there was an obvious veil lifted! Like a curtain had been drawn back which had not been apparent to me before.
I got the impression that the cable was adding very little, if any color to the music, very revealing and transparent.
With such a short run of quality cable and fewer connections being my reasoning for the increased transparency, like there were fewer bottlenecks in the pipeline to stem the flow of the music.
Music seemed more effortless when using this connector, everything flowed nicely and I found myself more engaged with the songs. Of particular note was the increased air and extension, with prolonged decay of notes, which seemingly hover in air for longer.
Reviewing my notes, which I scrawled down whilst listening read the reoccurring words: Air, decay, extension, sweet treble, ambience and intimacy. This fairly well sums up my impressions of the areas of improvement over my previous I.C. reference.
Further close examination of an album I am most familiar with, Tool’s: Lateralus, having listened to probably once a day since its release it would be a good test for me to judge the connector / cables character.
The album is fabulously recorded, with layer upon layer of delicate information, complex arrangements hinged on polyrythmic beats, very cleverly crafted song structures.
Listening to this album through the Lineout Cable was as if I was able to view deeper into the music. There is even more micro detail presented, I was hearing subtle details I hadn’t heard before, subtle nuances and information, which really added to the experience on an album such as this.
I really liken the change this product has brought to my listening to going from a garden hose to a fire hose, you really get that much easier flow, more of everything.
The only downside that I can possibly think of, with this level of transparency and Intimacy also comes noticeable flaws in recordings, everything is presented warts and all with tape hiss and compression I had not noticed before. I was easily able to distinguish good recordings from bad.
With a less revealing interconnect some of these compression and recording blemishes can be disguised, so you better ensure your music is encoded at a high enough bit rate, I’d say 256kps minimum. 320kps and Lossless recommended.
P.S: Ken got word of me writing a review on his Cardas product, and has just sent me his newest creation using silver cable(pictured below)...I just noticed them pictured on his website today, so he moves quickly.
His cable vendor advises a whopping 200 hours for this silver cable to burn in. Once I’ve established its signature I will report back.
For those looking for a compact, neutral sounding and seemingly transparent method of connecting an Ipod to an Amp, Give Ken’s products a try.
Thoroughly recommended.
http://www.audiolineout.com/
Gavin Leys
I recently plunged headlong into the Headphone scene after purchasing a 4th generation 40 gig Ipod. Not content with the crappy sound quality of Ipod ear buds supplied, knowing their was much better available for little expenditure I started researching on the web to find a suitable – Portable headphone replacement, which lead me to the online Headphone community Head-Fi.
Visiting the Head-Fi website soon became a daily occurrence for me, reading as much as possible before making my purchasing my first semi decent pair of phones: the Sennheiser PX-100.
These first pair of decent headphones were a revelation for me, realizing the unforseen resolution available through headphone listening I was addicted, listening for hours on end through my Mac G5 workstation and Ipod when on the go I couldn’t get enough, it had re-invigorated music for me.
I now found myself being able to connect with familiar music as never before, finding much more intimacy and micro detail within familiar recordings, which had me listening to my whole collection of music over and over, completely amazed and bemused by what I had been missing all these years!
Seeking to delve deeper to see how much more could be revealed without spending a fortune, I soon purchased a pair of Grado SR80’s shortly after selling the SR80’s to a friend to grab the Grado HF-1’s whilst they were available through a limited run of 451 items to Head-Fi members.
Reading all of the rave reviews of the HF-1, the hype got to me and I just had to have them….. Curse you Head-Fi!
Needing a headphone amplifier to bring the best out of the Grado HF-1 led me deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit which is my compulsive disorder, I then purchased portable amp to go with my Ipod. Again after much research I decided on the Portaphile V2^2.
Excited by what the Portaphile amp had added to my listening pleasure with added dynamics ambience and detail, I am now convinced that an amp was now a necessity for bringing out the most in headphone listening.
I was now on the hunt to find the ultimate interconnect for mating the Ipod to the Portaphile amp.
I had seemingly purchased every different connector available at the time, finally settling on what I felt to be a benchmark for transparency and neutrality. Kimber Kable’s GQ, mini to mini Interconnect which I had custom made to 8” length for better portability, connected to the Ipod via the “Pocket Dock “.
I was quite content with this set-up for some time, my only grudge being that the Kimber Kable was quite stiff and cumbersome, often dislodging the non locking pocket dock from the ipod, especially when used portably i.e. in a backpack. Causing an interruption to the fun not to mention the added strain on the input jacks of the amplifier.
In my search for a compact replacement, I stumbled across the AudioLineout connectors, made by Head-Fi member Kenneth Ball aka: Cletus Bocephust.
Ken had created exactly the connector I was after, a compact, flexible, high quality solution for connecting an ipod to amp.
Doing away with a second 3.5mm plug and associated soldering joints Ken has taken high quality copper Cardas cable, arranged in a tri strand Litz braid and soldered directly into an aftermarket Ipod docking plug. Utilizing only the 3 audio pins required for audio signal, for reduced clutter and purer signal transfer. The amplifier end of the cable is terminated with a Neutrik 3,5mm gold plug all soldered using Cardas silver solder.
This was seemingly about as close as you could get to permanently hardwiring the Ipod and amp together!
After speaking with Ken and reading the notes on his website regarding his product, I felt assured I would be receiving a quality product. Ken has strived to make his product perfect, after many iterations and design configurations he has arrived at his current design offered on his website http://www.audiolineout.com/
From our discussions he is also able to cater for custom lengths, cable color / material and plug types.
I proceeded to place order and the cable arrived to my address in Australia just over a week later.
The cable is very well made, with good attention to detail. Both ends of the cable having strain relief to help prevent cable fatigue and stress on the solder joints, upon close inspection I noticed all of the joints were well executed, being nice and shiny and using minimal solder, Ken had gone to the extra trouble of filing off any excess solder from the outside of the joints closest to the plugs sleeve to prevent any fouling, along with using a Teflon inner sleeve.
Everything was looking very encouraging on the build front, now to see how it sounded!
On first listen to some very familiar music, I was surprised by how revealing this connector was over my previous Kimber I.C and pocket dock combo, there was an obvious veil lifted! Like a curtain had been drawn back which had not been apparent to me before.
I got the impression that the cable was adding very little, if any color to the music, very revealing and transparent.
With such a short run of quality cable and fewer connections being my reasoning for the increased transparency, like there were fewer bottlenecks in the pipeline to stem the flow of the music.
Music seemed more effortless when using this connector, everything flowed nicely and I found myself more engaged with the songs. Of particular note was the increased air and extension, with prolonged decay of notes, which seemingly hover in air for longer.
Reviewing my notes, which I scrawled down whilst listening read the reoccurring words: Air, decay, extension, sweet treble, ambience and intimacy. This fairly well sums up my impressions of the areas of improvement over my previous I.C. reference.
Further close examination of an album I am most familiar with, Tool’s: Lateralus, having listened to probably once a day since its release it would be a good test for me to judge the connector / cables character.
The album is fabulously recorded, with layer upon layer of delicate information, complex arrangements hinged on polyrythmic beats, very cleverly crafted song structures.
Listening to this album through the Lineout Cable was as if I was able to view deeper into the music. There is even more micro detail presented, I was hearing subtle details I hadn’t heard before, subtle nuances and information, which really added to the experience on an album such as this.
I really liken the change this product has brought to my listening to going from a garden hose to a fire hose, you really get that much easier flow, more of everything.
The only downside that I can possibly think of, with this level of transparency and Intimacy also comes noticeable flaws in recordings, everything is presented warts and all with tape hiss and compression I had not noticed before. I was easily able to distinguish good recordings from bad.
With a less revealing interconnect some of these compression and recording blemishes can be disguised, so you better ensure your music is encoded at a high enough bit rate, I’d say 256kps minimum. 320kps and Lossless recommended.
P.S: Ken got word of me writing a review on his Cardas product, and has just sent me his newest creation using silver cable(pictured below)...I just noticed them pictured on his website today, so he moves quickly.
His cable vendor advises a whopping 200 hours for this silver cable to burn in. Once I’ve established its signature I will report back.
For those looking for a compact, neutral sounding and seemingly transparent method of connecting an Ipod to an Amp, Give Ken’s products a try.
Thoroughly recommended.
http://www.audiolineout.com/
Gavin Leys
