[Pharmaboy]

I've bought the ISK. Do you think it's necessary to buy a 3.5 to 4.4 to use moondrop Dawn balanced? Any cheap recomendation?

Congrats on getting the ISK.

I'm no expert on single-ended vs balanced, but my impressions here are:

• It's quite easy and safe to use a balanced headphone cable to plug into a single-ended (6.35mm jack) headphone amp. It's done using a "pigtail," a short (6"-8" cable) with a female balanced jack on the cable side and a 6.35mm jack on the amp side.
• It very unsafe to use a single ended headphone cable to plug into a balanced amp/jack, whether 4-pin XLR or 4.4. I've read too many comments about this causing short-circuits and/or thermal shutdowns within the amp

I wouldn't try this myself. If you have a single-ended amp to use with it, much safer/better, IMO.

 

[trivium911]

Congrats on getting the ISK.

I'm no expert on single-ended vs balanced, but my impressions here are:

• It's quite easy and safe to use a balanced headphone cable to plug into a single-ended (6.35mm jack) headphone amp. It's done using a "pigtail," a short (6"-8" cable) with a female balanced jack on the cable side and a 6.35mm jack on the amp side.
• It very unsafe to use a single ended headphone cable to plug into a balanced amp/jack, whether 4-pin XLR or 4.4. I've read too many comments about this causing short-circuits and/or thermal shutdowns within the amp

I wouldn't try this myself. If you have a single-ended amp to use with it, much safer/better, IMO.

Yeah best to rewire if you want to do that, it all depends on how they are wired. That said, I made my own balanced cables for my hifiman 400i. Though I also think expensive cables are a waste of money, at least for my ears.

 

[nicolaspiazza]

Congrats on getting the ISK.

I'm no expert on single-ended vs balanced, but my impressions here are:

• It's quite easy and safe to use a balanced headphone cable to plug into a single-ended (6.35mm jack) headphone amp. It's done using a "pigtail," a short (6"-8" cable) with a female balanced jack on the cable side and a 6.35mm jack on the amp side.
• It very unsafe to use a single ended headphone cable to plug into a balanced amp/jack, whether 4-pin XLR or 4.4. I've read too many comments about this causing short-circuits and/or thermal shutdowns within the amp

I wouldn't try this myself. If you have a single-ended amp to use with it, much safer/better, IMO.

My english is awful. Could you show me a pic of this piece?

 

[Pharmaboy]

My english is awful. Could you show me a pic of this piece?

If you mean the "pigtail" I described in post above, here is the exact one I purchased from ForzaAudioWorks. It is made of the same Noir HPC copper cable as their 2M Noir HCP balanced cables that I use with it.

I connect the 4-pin XLR male end of the 2M cable into the pigtail's 4-pin female end; then plug the pigtail's 6.35mm jack into any single-ended amplifier. The pigtail lets me use my balanced cables with any single-ended, non-balanced amplifiers.

 

[nicolaspiazza]

If you mean the "pigtail" I described in post above, here is the exact one I purchased from ForzaAudioWorks. It is made of the same Noir HPC copper cable as their 2M Noir HCP balanced cables that I use with it.

I connect the 4-pin XLR male end of the 2M cable into the pigtail's 4-pin female end; then plug the pigtail's 6.35mm jack into any single-ended amplifier. The pigtail lets me use my balanced cables with any single-ended, non-balanced amplifiers.

I was with something like this in mind, cause of moondrop dawn.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m07ieiK

 

[Pharmaboy]

I was with something like this in mind, cause of moondrop dawn.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m07ieiK

This won't work with the ISK MDH9000 for 2 reasons:

• The ISK (like all the clones) has a locking 3.5mm headphone jack that the 3.5mm end of the cable slides into & locks. Almost certainly you couldn't succeed in plugging a traditional (non-locking) 3.5mm cable jack into that earcup
• But even if you did succeed, you'd probably smoke the Moondrop Dawn, or the ISK, or both. It's not safe for a single ended cable to plug into a balanced amp

I could be wrong, but this doesn't look like a safe thing to do...

 

[nicolaspiazza]

This won't work with the ISK MDH9000 for 2 reasons:

• The ISK (like all the clones) has a locking 3.5mm headphone jack that the 3.5mm end of the cable slides into & locks. Almost certainly you couldn't succeed in plugging a traditional (non-locking) 3.5mm cable jack into that earcup
• But even if you did succeed, you'd probably smoke the Moondrop Dawn, or the ISK, or both. It's not safe for a single ended cable to plug into a balanced amp

I could be wrong, but this doesn't look like a safe thing to do...

I got it! Thanks for all the info. I'll used the dawn's 4.4 only for the IEMs with 4.4 plugs them. and isk's stock 3.5 on it's 3.5.

 

[theangelboy]

This won't work with the ISK MDH9000 for 2 reasons:

• The ISK (like all the clones) has a locking 3.5mm headphone jack that the 3.5mm end of the cable slides into & locks. Almost certainly you couldn't succeed in plugging a traditional (non-locking) 3.5mm cable jack into that earcup
• But even if you did succeed, you'd probably smoke the Moondrop Dawn, or the ISK, or both. It's not safe for a single ended cable to plug into a balanced amp

I could be wrong, but this doesn't look like a safe thing to do...

Just wanted to mention that you can easily remove the locking piece in the headphone jack socket (after opening the cup it's just 2 little screws that hold it, so totally reversible) so you can use any 3.5mm single eneded straight through cable with them as long as the cable housing isn't too bulky. I use a vmoda 3.5mm cable with mine.

Just so no one takes my post out of context someday and misunderstands what I'm saying here, you should NOT use a balanced cable with any clones since the ground wires are common and will short circuit a balanced amp!

I guess I should also note, that's the way my LyxPro HAS-30 is, but I would imagine other clones would be the same.

 

[raccoon city]

Yep, I use this cable with my ISK MDH9000 clone:
https://www.v-moda.com/us/en/products/audio-only-cable
I chose the black cable because it's a bit longer than the other ones.

 

[BenF]

Thanks just bought them, ended up finding the proper pair in black from the takstar store on aliexpress. I was actually looking at the QC45 but it looks like it was a wonky response until they are turned on. That is disappointing and leads me to believe they are using DSP to create the ideal frequency response. I already have my airpod Pro 2 for noise cancellation on flights so im looking for something that doesn’t need to be charged.

Hope you used the 5$ coupon from the first post.

 

[trivium911]

Hope you used the 5$ coupon from the first post.

Yup thanks I did. None of the links work, so I found the product manually and noticed the item number in the link was the same.

 

[BenF]

Yup thanks I did. None of the links work, so I found the product manually and noticed the item number in the link was the same.

You are welcome!

I have tested my links on multiple machines in different regions today - they always worked, except for sometimes on my work network - the company's proxy server is interfering. Maybe that's what is happening to you?

 

[nicolaspiazza]

What about those bad Boys? Anyone tried? They're under my radar for some days tô use at home.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mN7HGgg
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLrHsha

 

[Kimmeri]

God damn first time got to hear the Music Master 108mm E1000I from a proper amp and they really sound good. Ive had these quite a while now and only played them from Topping dx3 pro+. Ive been on Reddit too much, they always say that amps dont matter. If you get your headphones loud enough its good. Not true.
Elvis on these sounds a bit better than from HE-6. Then I often like to play Heilung - Krigsgaldr. There is that incredible bass starting little bit before the girl starts singing. Its very tasty from HE-6 but even better from Masters. Initial hit and impact is of course superior on Hifiman, but the size, weigh and overall enjoyability Music Masters takes the cake. Aliexpress 2k asking prize is justified on sound qualitywise but also kinda meh since there is no reviews or any info on the company. Not even a website, English at least. Total mystery. What to do if they break? Seems to share chassis a little bit with a Hifiman, even the same moronic connectors, maybe they are buddies or something.

 

[harry501501]

God damn first time got to hear the Music Master 108mm E1000I from a proper amp and they really sound good. Ive had these quite a while now and only played them from Topping dx3 pro+. Ive been on Reddit too much, they always say that amps dont matter. If you get your headphones loud enough its good. Not true.
Elvis on these sounds a bit better than from HE-6. Then I often like to play Heilung - Krigsgaldr. There is that incredible bass starting little bit before the girl starts singing. Its very tasty from HE-6 but even better from Masters. Initial hit and impact is of course superior on Hifiman, but the size, weigh and overall enjoyability Music Masters takes the cake. Aliexpress 2k asking prize is justified on sound qualitywise but also kinda meh since there is no reviews or any info on the company. Not even a website, English at least. Total mystery. What to do if they break? Seems to share chassis a little bit with a Hifiman, even the same moronic connectors, maybe they are buddies or something.

​

Amps, DACs, daps... 100% matter. Yeah, getting volume into certain sets is important, but different setups have their own unique flavour. It's why you can hear changes when swapping from source to source. Sometimes subtle, sometimes big. The right combo can make all the difference to the listener.