[castleofargh]

hi guys, i was kind of decided on the protector to pair with my jh13 and then Jude messed it all up showing the ttvj slim, pico slim and rsa shadow.
so here i am in need for guidance. is he the devil trying to plant seeds of doubt in my trust of the holy sound? or is he my new shepherd?


price is not an issue ( well it is but i plan on eating rocks for a while)
my main doubt is that I'm usually listening at a relatively low volume and i read a lot about potential hiss and/or channel imbalance.

i realize that with low volume i kind of lose the point of an amp. but after trying a few sources i ve come to the conclusion that some needed less volume to make the jh13 express themselves like i love them to, so in the end yes i want an amp so i can lower the volume of my eargasm.  (tell me if that is one more misconception that i made up by myself)

anyway thx for whatever advice or wisdom you ll put into my brain.
 

 

[justin w.]

I can tell you that the volume for the Pico Slim starts at zero.  hint.
 
And then it gets louder from there.

 

[chef8489]

I find customs do benefit from amping. I feel it opens up the sound stage and provides power at lower volume. From what i hear the protector is only shines in balance mode. I am not sure if you have to buy balanced cables for your iems.
 
I have not listened to the pico slim; however, I have used the original pico and several rsa products. If the slim is like its older brother then it is a fine amp as would the shaddow. I love my p51.

 

[gabieteo91]

i will say go for the slim.
heard it has great synergy with the jh series.

 

[nc8000]

The Pico Slim probably have the best and most precise volume control on the market but I love the RSA balanced sound with my JH13

 

[castleofargh]

ok i ve spent the day reading whatever link google or headfi post i could find, getting amazingly off road in the process.
at 10am i was almost ordering a hm801+game

10.20am i was gonna get the protector.

11.30am i still couldn't decide anything and was slowly sliding toward doing nothing at all and just enjoy the jh13 out of whatever sansa clip+/samsung ypp3/sony nws705/laptop etc ..

3pm i was now trying to find what DAP i could get with the protector, refusing to get an apple (i ve hated itune and the amazing library synch that empty your hard disk for too long).  but the hm801 is just an expensive not convenient brick with no battery life. however good the sound, it's not my idea of portable.  i couldn't seem to find anything else that would be good plugged into the protector.

 6pm i was wondering how the hell i went from " i m gonna buy a portable amp" to "so they remove some noise by opposing phases .. clever" to "is silver really better than copper?"  and decided it was time to have my breakfast ...

now it 's 8.25pm and i m deeply considering that ignorance is a bliss. i believed that with a bit of money i would come, buy some good stuff and be happy ever after. after all the holy grail is in the castle of arghhhhhhhh..
but really since i ve set foot on this forum, more and more i believe i will want to try everything and never be totally satisfied.

let's call it a day. OH! i ve just realized that in english we say "today is another day" but in france we say "tomorrow is another day"  that's what i call jet lag!!!

ps: thx for trying to help me, i ll be back when my brains have cooled down!!!!

ps2: nc800 i enjoy reading your posts and tend to agree with you on the very few products i ve owned or tried. sounds fanboyish but with the web often full of crap and egoboosts i thought it was worth mentioning. thank you.

 

[castleofargh]

 back and decided, but still totally ignorant:
i will go for the protector and move on from there. tbh i'm only going there because i am curious( and drooling from expectations) about the effects of a fully balanced system.
 
  i m right now in front of the whiplashaudio webpage to get the balanced cable for the protector and i am utterly lost into the options offered (so that's how my mother felt when trying to buy a computer ... )
what's the difference between http://www.whiplashaudio.com/cables/headphone-cables/elite-jha-ue-westone-iem-replacement-cable.html
and http://www.whiplashaudio.com/cables/headphone-cables/whiplash-elite-jha-ue-westone-iem-om-replacement-cable.html
 
what does OM stand for?
 
 
 
@ nc8000 i saw you somewhere writing that you had adapters to go from the protector system to another. did you diy? i can't seem to find anything like that for sell (then again i m just me)
 
where do you guys get the rubber bands everybody seems to use to fix the player and amp together?
 
thx and sorry for yesterday's nervous breakdown ^_^
 
 
 

 

[nc8000]

OM is the difference between the 2 cables and means overmold and references how the plugs going to the JH13 are done. OM is what the stock JH cable is. The cheaper alternative is assembled with heat shrink and I much prefer the OM, it's sleeker and more robust. All my cables and adaptors are TWag V2 Eclipse from Whiplash. Also you want to think about whether you want memory wire or not. I personally hate memory wire so have gone without. I use them over ear and have the spilt at the back of my head with the cable running down from there.

 

[castleofargh]

hi there!
i m now a late +1 in the protector/twag/jh13 family and i ve spent the last 6hours listening to my very best sound experience ever (portable let's keep it real)
i m very grateful to all those who pushed me in that direction and again thx nc8000, the "no" memory wire is indeed much much better. comfy, less cable noises, and makes it simple to put and remove the iems.
i just took the same kick in the face i did when i listened to money for nothing on a one of the first cd players. didn't even think it was possible thank you all.
 
can't say if this amp is any better than another i ve never had one before so i won't make prosperous statements about the rsa protector (i love it) . what i can say is that people suggesting the jh13 wasn't using his full potential directly plugged into a player were 100% right.
 
 

 

[nc8000]

Glad you like it, should give you many happy hours

 

[ijohan]

Does using balanced connector will achieve same result as using real balanced cable? If not, how much is difference?
I already purchased the single ended twag v2, don't want to spend more money to get another balanced one.
Thanks.

 

[nc8000]

I don't understand you question ?

Are you talking about the difference between using a single ended versus balanced headphone cable or are you talking about the source input ?

A single ended headphone can never (no matter what converter one might think of) be used with the balanced output, for that you need a propper balanced cable. Likewise a single ended source can never be used with the balanced input.

You can use a balanced headphone via a converter with a single ended output

 

[ijohan]

Quote:

I don't understand you question ?
Are you talking about the difference between using a single ended versus balanced headphone cable or are you talking about the source input ?
A single ended headphone can never (no matter what converter one might think of) be used with the balanced output, for that you need a propper balanced cable. Likewise a single ended source can never be used with the balanced input.
You can use a balanced headphone via a converter with a single ended output

Hi nc8000,
 
Thank you for the explanation, sorry for my bad english, now I understand clearly.
Once again, thanks a lot.
 
In my case, since I've got already single ended cable, I will have to live with that for a while before getting balanced amp, because I will have to buy a new balanced cable.

 

[nc8000]

Yes in my opinion the Protector and SR71-B are too expensive if one is not eventually going to use them with balanced headphones. Their single ended output however is good enough to use while saving up to balance the headphone. Also the SR71-B is only needed if you have a balanced source or very hard to drive headphones, otherwise the Protector is the best choice. I sold my Protector and bought SR71-B because Protector could not properly drive HE-4

 

[ijohan]

I listen to music using mostly iems, hardly use my hd650 and hd25. Do you think protector is enough for me? Or just get myself sr71a? Thanks.