audionewbi
Headphoneus Supremus
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- Jan 24, 2010
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I had more time to spend with K3003 and dita truth. My findings are as follow:
Setup: AK120-->Stock mini-toslink--> HUGO-->K3003/Dita Truth plus various amps.
AKG K3003 vs Dita truth: To begin with darn K3003 is so picky on what it likes to be paired with. It was not go with clayx M due to bad distortion that is suspected to be caused by clayx M (my other finding with some other 8 ohm IEM tells me this).
It had a nice warm sound with Ak120 but highs seem to be just not there. A note on high notes at start I thought the high notes sound really detached from the rest of the sound spectrum. While it is less noticeable now but on certain tracks it is comes across as been in front of the bassline, I mean way at the front. It is like asking the drummer to stay 4 meters behind and ask someone else to hit the cymbals 4 meters in front of the drummer.
On sound it just sounds different to Dita truth. I feel the dynamic driver used in it on its own can have great potential. Using reference filter and when all works well the instrument placement and sound stage can be better than dita truth as it sounds wider, it sounds more like a well placed studio monitors whereas dita truth sounds like a nice hifi setup with tube amplifier.
AKG K3003 seems to extract more detail due to sounding brighter but in reality the two do not really compete with each other as they offer a different sound so once again preference comes into action.
Ergonomics: K3003 is seem to be a winner for me as it fits in my ears okay without the metallic part touching my ears. I found that the metallic body of dita for prolong use can cause outer ear fatigue for me as the body is pushing against my ear but I hardly get to listen 2 hours straight these days.
The only thing that I would change on dita truth is their cable shielding which is very stiff and even using hair blow dryer trick that currawong told me it did not help . I am looking into finding some wool mesh mod for the cable in order to reduce the wires from twisting.
Amplification: Both IEM need a good amp. I carried my test initially with chord hugo which has no problem powering the two but however while it is a great source it is not cheap and I believe with my ODAC and O2 setup I was able to achieve the same result on my redbook sources without any problem so naturally for both IEM O2 is my main recommendation.
Conclusion: I am certainly keeping both but my preference is still with dita truth as it is more engaging however with time I will learn more on when I need to use the K3003 to get that final percentage of realism out of my sound source.
Dita provides a sound that is balancing the fine like of engaging the listener and providing them that detail sound that makes me grab my ER4S. It has incredible bass decay that to my ears was more natural than K3003 whereas K3003 bass has great quality but the quantity is not as much as Dita truth. It Decays of K3003 is good but a little slower than balance armature. Imaging and instrument placement on K3003 is better hence they provide a better critical listening but dita is just plays music without any of those distractions (which for some can be a bad thing)
Hope what I wrote made sense and I honestly did not proof read it, so apologies for all the grammar issues.
Setup: AK120-->Stock mini-toslink--> HUGO-->K3003/Dita Truth plus various amps.
AKG K3003 vs Dita truth: To begin with darn K3003 is so picky on what it likes to be paired with. It was not go with clayx M due to bad distortion that is suspected to be caused by clayx M (my other finding with some other 8 ohm IEM tells me this).
It had a nice warm sound with Ak120 but highs seem to be just not there. A note on high notes at start I thought the high notes sound really detached from the rest of the sound spectrum. While it is less noticeable now but on certain tracks it is comes across as been in front of the bassline, I mean way at the front. It is like asking the drummer to stay 4 meters behind and ask someone else to hit the cymbals 4 meters in front of the drummer.
On sound it just sounds different to Dita truth. I feel the dynamic driver used in it on its own can have great potential. Using reference filter and when all works well the instrument placement and sound stage can be better than dita truth as it sounds wider, it sounds more like a well placed studio monitors whereas dita truth sounds like a nice hifi setup with tube amplifier.
AKG K3003 seems to extract more detail due to sounding brighter but in reality the two do not really compete with each other as they offer a different sound so once again preference comes into action.
Ergonomics: K3003 is seem to be a winner for me as it fits in my ears okay without the metallic part touching my ears. I found that the metallic body of dita for prolong use can cause outer ear fatigue for me as the body is pushing against my ear but I hardly get to listen 2 hours straight these days.
The only thing that I would change on dita truth is their cable shielding which is very stiff and even using hair blow dryer trick that currawong told me it did not help . I am looking into finding some wool mesh mod for the cable in order to reduce the wires from twisting.
Amplification: Both IEM need a good amp. I carried my test initially with chord hugo which has no problem powering the two but however while it is a great source it is not cheap and I believe with my ODAC and O2 setup I was able to achieve the same result on my redbook sources without any problem so naturally for both IEM O2 is my main recommendation.
- Wagnus epsilon s offered a much more open sound with bass that is in balance with the rest of the sound. However an attenuator is needed to reduce hiss on K3003. This amp is already expensive and requires non-rechargable batteries so yes no where a true value.
- 627x: This amp is one strange beast. By this I mean it is one of those amps that does not simply amplify signals but it does it to its liking. It is an amp that will shape the sound to its nature and it can be a good or bad thing depending on the IEM. It has a very lush and engaging sound that will make bright IEM like ER4S/Ck100pro become an IEM that offers great detail and musicality. And this can be a bad thing as it just has too much
powercontrol over the IEM.
It can both fix problems or create it. With K3003 it is a 10/10 pairing but with dita truth it is more like an 8/10 as dita bass and mids are already nicely presented and with 627x it can be a little too much of a good thing. - Meir audio quickstep: This is what I consider the step brother of O2 or better doppelganger of O2 as they both are very similar yet different.
For my setup I had them both on low gain setting with the quickstep on max current step. Both were running on PSU to increase their theoretical performance.
Quickstep is obviously the more portable one as it is much smaller and O2 is the considerably larger more transportable. What they both share is they both just amplify without doing much ( or in case of Quickstep very little ) alteration on the sound. Quickstep to my ears provided more of clarity on the high spectrum of the sound but that was about it.
O2 provided a more of a darker background whereas Quickstep provided a better channel balance at lower volumes.
To my ears Quickstep sounded a lot more closer to Chord Hugo than O2 when paired with K3003 and Dita truth using ODAC as a source. - All above amps when paired with Chord Hugo seemed to degrade the sound to my ears so this is why I did not use HUGO as a source for them but rather ODAC which is really a great value. I had positive results with DD socket 1 and carrot audio topaz DAC but they both cost much more than ODAC and I honestly could not test them more in depth.
Conclusion: I am certainly keeping both but my preference is still with dita truth as it is more engaging however with time I will learn more on when I need to use the K3003 to get that final percentage of realism out of my sound source.
Dita provides a sound that is balancing the fine like of engaging the listener and providing them that detail sound that makes me grab my ER4S. It has incredible bass decay that to my ears was more natural than K3003 whereas K3003 bass has great quality but the quantity is not as much as Dita truth. It Decays of K3003 is good but a little slower than balance armature. Imaging and instrument placement on K3003 is better hence they provide a better critical listening but dita is just plays music without any of those distractions (which for some can be a bad thing)
Hope what I wrote made sense and I honestly did not proof read it, so apologies for all the grammar issues.
