[Gintaras]

as regards vSonic GR01 i do not have any experience but on other forums i found many people buying vSonic earphones for C3 and being very happy. less so with Shure which are really specific monitors and you must try them with your player in shop before buying them since Shure would not pair with any player, but when synergy is good Shures will sing like no other. my S9 is a good witness to Shure's singing ability... but my C3 disagrees with S9 ))

 

[Gintaras]

Starcraft, btw i see some people praise GR07 (not GR01) and V-Moda M80 with C3.
 
what i can add is that you please do not save on earphones, because like with every good high end setup the loudspeakers are at least 40% of your rig costs
 
so if C3 costs 90$ good earphones will cost up to 200$ to which GR07 and Musical Fidelity belong. good Shure balanced armature will be se425 or se535 if i am not mistaken but AGAIN Shure are very picky for source and i am not sure C3 will be able to drive them nice enough.
 
PS: while writing to you i am listening to Patricia Kaas Kabaret concert on my C3 with MF and ZO2.3.... what a sound, WOW, sweet ))

 

[Duhuj]

Hello. Looking for some circum-aural closed back head phones for my recently purchased C3. Mostly for classical music.
I've been considering the Shure 840, 940, or AKG K550. Are these any good? If not is there anything in the ~$200-300 range which would better suit classical music on the C3?

 

[cyberalpha11]

Quote:

 
Starcratf, i do not think Shure se215 would do C3 a justice. i also doubt you will get all benefits of C3 sound with dynamic drivers which se215 and GR01 are... i think C3 needs balanced armature drivers to reveal real music nirvana. but this is only MHO.
 
Funnily selecting in-ears monitors is not so easy. I have Shure se215 and they pair nicely with my lovely Cowon S9, really se215 adds such a good synergy to S9 to make this player literally sing so i would not trade them for any other earphone on my S9. BUT.......... then comes different story of C3.
 
...when I plugged my loved se215 into C3 I immediately noticed some sound quality loss a bit. i was very surprised and so i took C3 again and plugged my brandnew Musical Fidelity EB50 single armature monitors... WOW... Vola to my own surprise... the sound came crystal clear, very detailed, open and nicely layered and stage opened up. from this i concluded that C3 perhaps likes armature balanced drivers more than dynamic drivers which se215 are. my Musical Fidelity are single armature but IMO performs better than many dual armature earphones. MF really does a great job and i fully recommend them. HOWEVER, one consideration you need to make. if you will use single armature balanced earphones with C3 you perhaps will also need to add a good amplifier for bass boost with which you will gain bass body (C3 details bass very nicely but lacks a bit of bodily sound in lower registers). in my case i took Digizoid because of its portable size and because i need only bass booster and not some amping. till now i find sound excellent and worth a very good hifi setup. so i miss my sonus fabers tube setup at work less and less since i have C3 with MF and Zo2
 
all in all selecting setup for C3 is more difficult than for Cowon IMHO, C3 in this regard is more akin high-end where you carefully choose every component to reveal true sound of expensive musical rig.
 
PS: you won't believe but when i plugged Musical Fidelity earphones into S9 what i got was pretty mechanical digital and unpleasant sound. even EQ won't help to cure that. so this experience just confirms what i found. Cowons like dynamic drivers earbuds and C3 prefers balanced armature drivers )) IMHO

Can you explain in more detail about the degradation in C3's SQ when listening with SE215?
What do you think if Heir Audio's 3.Ai will have a good synergy with Colorfly C3?
By the way, what is the best tested IEM that has unleashed the real potential of C3?

 

[nick2413]

Quote:

Found answer to my problem I believe.  I downloaded the firmware (which was same version as I already had) and applied it.  It must have reset the sd card recognition/configuration because now the full 64GB shows.  I'll have to fill it up first to be sure.

Did the Colorfly recognise the 64gb sd card in the end?  If so, which sd card did you buy? Does it have to be a certain class?

 

[starcraft2]

Hi Guys.
 
Thx for the help.
 
@Gintaras - besides the MF what IEMs did you check? 

 

[Gintaras]

Cyber, Starcraft, please do not misunderstand me. i am not a seller or tester for players or in-ears.
 
let me explain. i did not compare various in-ears besides a few but.... i wanted to find a player and in-ears that could give me high-end sound or at least something coming close to it.
 
so my comparison was between the sound C3 produced with inears to my high-end rig i have at home. so literally poor C3 had to compete soundwise against Sonus Fabers Cremena M floorstanders + tube amp 250W per channel + Naim CDP 5x all wired with expensive cables ))
 
believe me this was a tough competition for C3 ... during which i found that C3 amped via ZO2.3 into EB50 came closest in sound to my music rig.... se215 was left biting the dust and my daughter told me that se215 on C3 sounded more like her CA combo with Monitor Audio RX1 monitors while C3 was more close to Sonus Fabers setup in my main room. still UNFORTUNATELY no mp3player i had could reproduce stage feel and reverberation i get with my main room setup.
 
now to answer which earphones i used in comparison.... i have se215 and so naturally they were tested, then Klipsch i4 and X11 of my daughter, then Shure se315 if i am not mistaken and then MF EB50. not many but hey.... why would i run further IF i found inears that met me expectation? so i settled gladly on Musical Fidelity inears full stop.
 
actually my experience with high end makers did not fail me... so knowing Musical Fidelity is very good hifi and highend maker i was little surprised when discovered benefits of their EB50. now you also have other high end makers like Focal and Martin Logan making earphones too. actually some people say Focal full size eaphones are great value for money too. but i prefer inears on the go and so took MF.
 
all i can say that EB50 need bass booster otherwise they will sound too clinical while being very detailed... so bass amping is a must if you take MF inears.
 
hope my answer clears some visions of my earlier postings.

 

[Gintaras]

i use 32G cards... did not try 64G because i find it more convenient to put different music collections on a few cards rather than scroll through large number of files... so a few 32G did job for me nicely. i also picked cheapest class4 card since it makes no sense to insert class 10 into C3 after you read specifications. i think C3 will not differentiate class4 from class10 micro SD. so i did this cheap and dirty.

 

[Gintaras]

Starcraft, one issue i forgot to mention. i was very interested in vSonic GR07 after so many positive responses from people using them on C3... HOWEVER i live in Europe where testing GR07 was impossible because no shop here has them while i did not want to buy it blind... and when i discovered Musical Fidelity the game was over.
 
if you can try GR07 i would fully recommend you do that before buying. besides you must remember that each person has different taste for how musical equipment must sound. so you must try things you like if you can find that in shop and wire to your C3 for testing.
 
for me music means blended harmony which i always prefer over flat rendered details... this is why i use tubey (valves) preamp in my music rig at home. sound must be not only detailed but have rich timbre and give you the effect of onstage presence. in particular i like when music player or rig gives me the impression of standing on stage with singer rather than sitting in the first row.
 
now excuse me, i am off and back to my wife ... otherwise a risk she will throw me out with all my music tech garbage ))

 

[Gintaras]

perhaps i need to post a small review for Shure se215 and MF eb50 to rule out any confusion that could be associated with my prior posts.
 
to begin with i would say comparing sound of se215 and eb50 is like comparing upright Yamaha to Yamaha grand piano... both are nice sounding but grand piano has its own.
 
Shure se215 (dynamic driver IEMs):
 
trebles: nicely layered highs with a bit roll off, overall pleasing sound but lacks sometimes necessary aggression and cymbals might be not clean enough sometimes.
 
mids: se215 truly shines in midrange, superbly nice warm but also well articulated with good bass texture create truly open sound.
 
bass: solid bass body, rich and deep, but warm presentation of se215 sacrifices some lower octave details for coloring overall presentation, as a result bass lacks some transients complexity and immediacy in attack.
 
stage: nicely layered but sometimes i found it little bit congested because of warm and colored presentation style. instrument separation is good but not top notch.
 
overall sound: harmonically rich and warm, great mids, good highs and warm full bass. PRAT (pace-rythm-attack-timing) is Ok but is not the best since lower registers suffer from coloration.
 
nb: se215 are easily driven and C3 drives them well too, you can enjoy nice sound without a need of adding the amping solution. with volume between 25-30 on C3 you already receive a nice musical presentation.
 
 
Musical Fidelity eb50 (single armature balanced driver):
 
please note that MF is completely different animal compared to Shure se215.
 
trebles: very precise, detailed with great immediacy but very neutral and even bit too cold sounding. eb50 makes cymbals sound like real cymbals but... a poor record will also sound awful. eb50 is no compromise solution here.
 
mids: nicely textured and detailed mid range and mid bass. HOWEVER without amplifier mids on eb50 can sound dry and thin. se215 renders mid tones more nicely thanks to warmth and bass coloration they have. with amplifier midrange opens up on eb50 while all details remain intact. again eb50 excels in PRAT here.
 
bass: perhaps a similar story but... eb50 offers very refined and detailed bass rendition while lacking overall weight... this gives the impression of a bit clinical presentation. still pace and attack are excellent on eb50 even when not amped. adding amp truly reveals what eb50 are capable of. bass gains bodily weight but this comes without losing any detail, bass remains tight at the same time, pace of rhythm remains excellent, transients are precise, you literally feel the air moving around...
 
stage: hm..... without amping you might feel the stage is wide and open but is a bit far away... with amplifier stage moves on you and you feel like being immersed in the centre of performance. truly excellent, airy and wide open.
 
overall sound: very detailed, also cold and neutral. no coloration whatsoever... when not amped eb50 can sound almost clinical with C3. when amp is added to eb50 this truly excels in all areas and ticks most of the audiophile demand boxes. however amp matching will require some effort since i am not sure if every amp would do them justice.
 
nb. eb50 are more difficult to drive, more picky at source, and on C3 you need turn nearly full volume to gain good presentation. more so bass on eb50 without amping will remain thin tough excellently textured. even amping eb50 will not blow your socks away, so bass-heads must abstain from eb50. however audiophile lovers will find amped eb50 with C3 as marriage in heaven.
 
if i would have to say how they compare i would put it the following way:
 
se215 - universal solution for casual listening without the need of adding an amp, very good all rounder and a true workhorse, plus good bass and warm sounding overall
eb50 - audiophile solution for revealing all fine details, very neutral and revealing at the same time... eb50 will come at twice the price of se215 plus you will need invest in good amp to boost lower octaves. however once you willing to invest you will be truly rewarded with the amazing result ))
 
for what is worth every product finds its own buyer.

 

[Gintaras]

Well well well, today i decided again to try c3 vs. cowon, so i plugged se215, not eb50, into my s9 and enjoyed some music.. Then i swapped players and plugged se215 into c3.... holy cow... what a difference, c3 does not just play music, it sings... Stage, depth, articulation, clarity... You name them... This little machine brought music to life, no joke. And i tested both neutral settings and then cowon EQ settings tweaked. Excuse me but even tweaked Cowon settings could not give me what c3 offered.

For those asking how c3 compares to Cowon, this little Chinese gizmo Colorfly is miles ahead in sound, there is no going back for me personally. Cowon is nice player but it cannot bring up to a level of c3. Colorfly is just so better regardless, period posted!

 

[H20Fidelity]

Well well well, today i decided again to try c3 vs. cowon, so i plugged se215, not eb50, into my s9 and enjoyed some music.. Then i swapped players and plugged se215 into c3.... holy cow... what a difference, c3 does not just play music, it sings... Stage, depth, articulation, clarity... You name them... This little machine brought music to life, no joke. And i tested both neutral settings and then cowon EQ settings tweaked. Excuse me but even tweaked Cowon settings could not give me what c3 offered.

For those asking how c3 compares to Cowon, this little Chinese gizmo Colorfly is miles ahead in sound, there is no going back for me personally. Cowon is nice player but it cannot bring up to a level of c3. Colorfly is just so better regardless, period posted!

I've had an S9 and C3 at the same time. It didn't take long to work out which was the better player, I think another member ended up selling his S9 to not long after. It's a different sound at first, different nature though once you learn C3 you can see certainly more audiophile. If you want to take your C3 to the next level you should be considering this little portable amp with silver plated interconnect. It gives the C3 more weight in the low end, brings out all the detail. Many people are enjoying this amp, I even find it more balanced than Colorfly CK4. Takes C3 to a whole new level.

Check it out, be sure to read the members impressions, it's becoming rather popular.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/644363/c-c-bh-portable-headphone-amp-80-hours-from-a-single-charge-buyer-review

 

[ozkan]

C3 arrived today finally. It was well packed and everything seems professional about packaging but when I opened the box I was shocked. There were some scratches under the screen especially on the + button (a deep big scratch). Also there are some songs in it. Isn't it supposed to be empty? Did anyone experienced the same thing? I think the seller sent me an used item.

 

[kova4a]

Yeah, there are songs preloaded on the C3 - it doesn't come empty. As fas as the scratches - are there on the front of the C3 with the folio removed or you haven't removed it from the front yet?

 

[ozkan]

Yes, on the front of the C3 and right I haven't remove it yet. I just realized that there is a folio on the screen so is it ok?