Tanalasta
1000+ Head-Fier
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Not long now.
What's the advantage of using Pre-Mode rather than traditional line in?
What's the advantage of using Pre-Mode rather than traditional line in?
Test with your ear , not your eyes.Not long now.
What's the advantage of using Pre-Mode rather than traditional line in?
That's the plan when I get the C9. It hasn't arrived yet. Whether it has to do with differences in gain or a noticeable difference, I will find out.Test with your ear , not your eyes.
Just some initial impressions from a few hours with my new purchase of the C9, paired with the Shanling M8:
Line in vs Pre (Tube/Class A)
Pre – warmer, less detail esp in harmonics and tonal nuance, mild hiss
Line – cooler, larger & deeper stage, more detail, blacker background
My preference with M8: Line out mode, Low gain (M8), Low gain (C9) - line in to C9 is a clear winner.
Timbre/Amp
Class A/B – impact, Class A – less aggressive
Tube – more transparent & forward mids, slower attack – greater decay
SS – balanced presentation
Tonal accuracy hard to choose, Tubes have slight advantage
My preference with M8: Tube / Class A for the majority of my music
Shanling M8 (high gain) + MEST MK2 vs Shanling M8 LO mode (low gain) – Cayin C9 (Tube/A/low gain) + MEST MK2
With C9
Without C9
- Bass tighter, reaches deeper
- Mids brought forward (towards my preferred signature!)
- Deeper & more spherical staging
- Greater transparency
- Possibly blacker background (may be due to the deeper staging and tighter dynamics giving the impression of greater contrast?)
- Looser macrodynamics / ‘smoother’ presentation
- Mids lacking body (for my preference)
- Shallower & less spherical stage / greater intimacy
- Less detail (but not necessarily in a bad way at times; can make for easier listening)
- Less transparent
Overall, several steps up for both the 3DT + MESTMK2. My concern prior to purchase was producing a warm-on-warm signature that would detract from things (due to a lack of true LO on the M8). While we all have our preferences and point at which things may become ‘too warm’, I certainly haven’t reached that point – thankfully! In fact, there was an almost immediate appreciation that things sounded less congested, more transparent and more detailed with the C9 which, I feel, has offset any cumulative effect of double amp’ing in this scenario that could risk warming things too far.
What’s clear in the few hours of listening is that the line in (and line in mode on the M8) is superior in presenting the technical ability of the IEM when compared to the preamp function. For those pairing M8’s, ensure that when you switch to line out mode that you then alter the gain to low gain as it defaults to ‘turbo’.
Another point is that my MEST MK2 has seemed to benefit more from this upgrade than the cheaper 3DT, likely because the C9 helps it work to its strengths, seeing an improvement in technicalities which were clearly hamstrung to a degree with M8 alone.
Obviously take my initial impressions with a pinch of salt, but its all good so far! Thanks for all the help and advice along the way guys.
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Can I plug an unbalanced or not completely grounded input into the 4.4
Ie. have a PWA adapter from the RCA of the Hugo 2 to a 4.4mm. If I used the 4.4mm interconnect technically the RCA red and white are not balanced so will it short the C9.
I imagine safer to just use the 3.5 mm interconnect
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Thank you, and hopefully you'll like your C9 more today. The C9 circuit is build with discrete components, it'll take slightly more time to run-in when compare to highly integrated Op-Amp based circuit.
One thing I feel peculiar, I have read a lot of discussion about UM 3DT, but how about QDC Dmagic 3D? It is significantly more expensive the UM 3DT, but at current discounted price from MusicTeck, it is nowhere near expensive when compare to many IEM discussed in this thread. Let's hope someone will check this out and I have a feeling that C9 will scale this multi-DD earphones very well.