[Andykong]

Actually, many of my 25 cycles (yes I keep count to estimate total runtime) are full charge/discharge. Partly due to convenience, I just plug in my Porta Pro which is also undergoing burn-in and loop continuously till battery flat (unfortunately so because I'm not always around to stop it at ~20% per your advice).  

Well, I charge my DAP at night and quite often I can't stop the charging at 80%, but I'll try to keep away from battery drain till the last few percentages.

If you were to burn in a headphone at the same time, maybe you can keep the N5 plug in all the way, probably not a good idea if you were to do this for months, but should not be harmful if you were to do a 200 hours burn-in only.

 

[Andykong]

After a few days delay because of the blizzard in New York City, my balanced cable for my headphones, my new N5 (with a perfect middle button now) and the dignis leather case finally all arrived! I am really enjoying the N5 using the balanced cable. It opened up the soundstage a bit, and enhanced the layering and detail in the music. I thought the N5 sounded good on its own, but the balanced option really pushes this DAP over the edge against other players in this price range.

Below is a picture of what will (hopefully) be my portable rig for a while

Yes, the MDR-1A headphone is wired for balanced. The cable that comes with the headphones (without the [COLOR=111111]in-line microphone and remote) has 3.5 TRRS on the side that pugs into the headphones and 3.5 TRS on the side that plugs into the DAP.[/COLOR]


Yeah, the only reason I got the wine is because the black was unavailable from Amazon or e-bay. I gotta say that I'm loving the color of the case though. And I agree 20% is a good number to show the improvement using balanced. I hear no hissing with the Sony's.

Good for you, I think the wine color is a brilliant choice.

Well, I confess, I didn't really check out N5 with headphones, I use IEM exclusively with N5 and hence my observation on Single ended vs Balanced in N5 is based on IEM only, and in general, IEM are not as scalable as headphones, so the impact might be different.

As I mentioned previously, one of the advantages of switching to 2.5mm balanced output from N5 is extra driving power and current when the headphone amplification increased from two units of BUF634 to four units of BUF634. The extra current might not be very important to IEMs, but certainly will make a bigger impact to headphones.

In addition, I think the changes are more obvious on soundstage, imaging and slightly better extension in both ends, the tonal balance should remain unchanged, well, in most case I supposed.

 

[Andykong]

No needd. As you know, there is a opening over the USB port whereas only the sdcard slots are covered. So, just remove the original silicon cover.

To tell you the truth, I have removed the silicon cover on my N5 as well, but this is "unofficial", don't quote me on this please.

 

[Andykong]

He already had some time with the N5 prior but he did further and noted that N5 is brighter, which seem odd as his Vantam is rolled with the MUSE chip... He tried with his K10U.

If he consider N5 is bright, then he probably prefers laid back and darker sound, but theK10U is nothing like that in my experience, a very interesting case indeed.

No joy. Tried with 2 other cables, there is no love between N5 and A20.

Sorry to hear that, I run out of options if N5 can work with every other headphone amp but not the A20 only. Can you try insert a DAC in between to see what happened?

 

[Andykong]

Nikolous, the FLC8S is 11 Ohm and 93 dB efficiency right? I'd be interested if you hear hiss with the balanced connection. It was quite obvious with the JH Angie (17 Ohm, 117 dB efficiency) from the N5 balanced.

Yes, learn a lesson the hard way, underestimated the impact to the high sensitive IEMs such as the Angie you quoted.

To avoid repeating the history, I have acquired a "hissing detector" recently, its rated at 122db

 

[nmatheis]

What is it Andykong?

 

[Mr Trev]

looks like a Westone 1 to me.

 

[twister6]

  looks like a Westone 1 to me.

 
Westone tips for sure, but I don't recognize IEM (and cable is not detachable).  Some older Westone models had 2pin connector.

 

[nmatheis]

Yup, Google Image search for Westone 1 certainly looks just like Andy's new IEM. Good catch @Mr Trev!

 

[twister6]

  Yup, Google Image search for Westone 1 certainly looks just like Andy's new IEM. Good catch @Mr Trev!

 
You guys are absolutely right, Googled it as well, Westone 1 of 2009 vintage!

 

[nmatheis]

Andy's gone all old-skool on us :wink_face:

 

[PinkyPowers]

Yes, learn a lesson the hard way, underestimated the impact to the high sensitive IEMs such as the Angie you quoted.

To avoid repeating the history, I have acquired a "hissing detector" recently, its rated at 122db

Yeah, it was a fairly loud hiss on my Angie as well.

 

[alwass89]

Even though the MDR-1As have a pretty low impedance (24 ohms), using the balanced cable, I feel these sound much better using high gain.

 

[Andykong]

You guys are absolutely right, Googled it as well, Westone 1 of 2009 vintage!

Yup, Google Image search for Westone 1 certainly looks just like Andy's new IEM. Good catch @Mr Trev
!

Indeed its an vintage model, Westone 1

hhttp://www.westoneaudio.com/index.php/products/w-series/w-series-product-archive/westone-1.html#
Sensitivity: 122 dB SPL @1mW
Impedance: 27 ohms @1kHz

I have done my homework while I am searching for a high sensitivity IEM to serve as "hissing detector" , I have decided to go for Westone W10, while I was searching for good deals, I run into this shop that still have a couple of NOS Westone 1 available and these two IEMs are rated at the same impedance, so I get a very good deal as the shop is trying to clear their remaining stock at 50% off MSRP.

 

[Andykong]

Even though the MDR-1As have a pretty low impedance (24 ohms), using the balanced cable, I feel these sound much better using high gain.

I can't prove it, but I guess the size of the driver units in on-ear/over-ear headphone (4-0mm-50mm) required significantly more current to control when compare to the drivers used in IEMs, that's why balanced DAP will make a bigger different with headphones then IEMs.