Wow thanks for the info about the shells, I wanted to ask about some of those as well. I'm also interested in the metal 14.8mm shells, but I have to get some drivers first.Yup. These are exactly the same shell. I both silver and black before the colored version with mat finish came out. At that time only the Chitty store has these.
Of course, NSC always has a better offer for 20-30% less. These shells are my 3rd favorite right now. 1st place share this one which I already described in the previous post and this model.
I can't decide which one is better. The second model is more suitable for boomy drivers, has a small cavity size and simulates closed-back headphones. I plan to make comparation for the same driver in shells with small, medium and large cavity sizes in the future. I probably will use beryllium 130ohm since I have 3 pairs only for these.
Try to avoid this model at all costs. I ordered the silver model. They send me a silver model with both "R" markings.
One cover is like a grid with elongated holes and second, it has round holes . MX500 cover is a bit larger than a shell. But that's not the main problem.
MMCX socket connection with the shell is great but you need to screw 10 -12 times and wires are always detached while screwing.
I spent many hours finalizing this. So forget about it. I'm interested in this "gun-metal" version.
About the DAC's. Yes. SMSL IQ can drive my 300ohm earbuds. If you are looking BT DAC then go with the BTR5, it has many great features.
Take a look at this USB DAC. This is probably the best money/value DAC right now. See the review. Similar DAC chip as SMSL IQ.
This is the thread where explain differences between ES9018K2M (Fever DAC) and ES9018Q2M (SMSL IQ)
The IQ can drive 300ohm speakers unbalanced? By the specs it doesn't look very powerful in that mode (about 50-60mw at 32ohm if I remember correctly)
I've seen that noname sabre dac last year from these listings: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32868505086.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32932392383.html At that time I skipped it because of the scarce info and mixed feedback, and went with the SMSL X4 instead. I never thought it would surpass the smsl idea. The hardware is nice but I'm concerned about the implementation quality. Do you have one? It would be great even for a backup if it can drive the titanium64 well, I could sell smsl x4 for more than the 20 usd this costs.
I have a little bit similar shaped shell to one of your favorites in plastic sadly it's slightly smaller than the 15.4mm covers so I haven't used it so far. It could be a base for an interesting ultra budget build as well. i think panda built something with it once. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32903306888.html
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