[PowerPod]

I have a pair of ESW10 headphones and was looking at whether any further improvements could be made to these already fantastic headphones for my basic mobile setup (currently iPhone and ESW10).

Reading through the various threads the view on sinking $350-$475 dollars into a portable amp e.g. RSA P-51 appears to be in several people's opinion a waste of money as the improvement may not be that significant.

So this brings me onto my question... is it worth considering a re-cable instead or will an amp really bring something out in these particular headphones?

I see ALO do an ESW9 SXC re-cable and was able to find one paragraph suggesting a noticeable improvement so one might expect similar results with the ESW10. The other alternative I saw was the APureSound V3 re-cable. The photos suggest a more practical and perhaps a more esthetically pleasing cable design for portable use though I suspect more work may have gone into individually matching the cable with ALO.

Thoughts, opinions, experiences?

 

[PowerPod]

Links to APureSound and ALO ESW9/10 re-cables

APureSound V3 - Audio-Technica ESW9
ALO Audio

 

[padam]

Without using a good portable amp like the Pico Slim I don't see much point in a recable, the amp is more important.

 

[stang]

I would suggest buying a good portable amp. If you don't already, make sure your library of music if lossless already.

 

[PowerPod]

Seems like sound advice which I will take. I think I put my name down too late for the first shipment of Pico Slims, just have to wait then

 

[tk3]

I'm a firm convert of "portable for the sake of portable", i.e: not carrying around unnecessary luggage when you probably can't hear the difference anyway or it is negligible due to outside noise.
I've lugged around a rig with an RWA iMod, a portable amp and the ESW9/10's for a few years, and although I think it does sound good, the extra bulk just isn't worth it.
Recently I got a Sony Walkman (NZ-A847), which is tiny, has great battery life and sounds pretty much as good as the iMod rig to me (or good enough for me not to care), only it is much more convenient.

I had a few RSA amps when I was fairly new to this hobby and bought into the hype of how good they were, but ultimately I think "they just don't do much", especially not for what they cost, so I ended up selling them.
I do enjoy my Pico as a source/amp for my laptop though, or for when I use my secondary rig, for this purpose it is excellent.

As for recable, I wouldn't do it myself, for the same reasons as above.
The aftermarket cables usually add bulk and/or are stiff compared to the stock cable, and any sonic difference is most likely nullified by outside noise.
These headphones sound good, but they don't do a good job of blocking vehicle noise.
There is also the factor of cost, the prices of some of these cables cost half of what the headphone itself costs, which is madness IMHO for a portable headphone.

The only reason I would get a recable is if I was unsatisfied with the length or material of the cable, and the recable would fix that, or if the stock cable broke down due to usage, but definitely not for any sonic improvement.


These are my views of course, what you do really depends on your needs, such as whether you use it mostly as a commuting rig like me, or as a transportable office rig, and how much the $400-1000 that it will set you back matters to you.
I'd rather upgrade the source first, either the player or the files itself and buy more music, rather than getting another cable and another box that needs to be carried, charged up periodically etc.

 

[pekingduck]

Why bother with an amp? The ESW10JPNs are super unamped..

 

[K_19]

I also agree that it's not really worth it to invest in a portable amp for ESW10JPN's alone.

Recable is something you may consider primarily if you are concerned about the fragility of the stock ones, but depending on the cable you may be killing the portability of it. I don't think too many people here had their ESW10JPN recabled... but I recall Lil' Knight did one. You can try to PM and ask about what the sonic differences were.

 

[Lil' Knight]

I had the ESW10JPN recable by APS V3, amped by the P51. The sound was truly excellent but I won't say it's a huge improvement from the ESW10JPN+iTouch.

Keep your ESW10JPN stock, play it with a nice source and you're all set. It's designed for portable use and I doubt AT tried it with any headamp.

 

[PowerPod]

Thanks for the comments Lil'Knight - why spend money for the sake of it? I think the problem here is without actually testing this for myself using my 'pod, its difficult for me to know for sure, especially when everyone is going to have a different opinion!

With bit rates I can draw my own conclusions. Re-ripping my favourite music at lossless sounds like an idea and resampling as necessary into a seperate location depending on my mobile storage capabilities/needs and where it makes a difference.

Only a few of my albums are at 320kbps which are generally the ones that are good quality recordings or troublesome ones where there is noticable clipping or something especially at the lower frequencies. Maybe a used iPod classic is where money will be best spent to provide me with the real estate I would need or simply resynch on a regular basis.

 

[lootbag]

I have the ESW9 + iPod 5.5G combo; unamped sounds great!

I have heard the ESW10JPN, it will do just as well without an amp...

If you want to get an amp, the music will definitely sound better but not at an extreme margin. I am still deciding whether to get an amp myself...
THe source is very important. Getting an iPod 5G 5.5G or 6G is a good choice!

 

[PowerPod]

Interesting - I wonder if say the iPhone and Touch differ much from the latest Classic?

 

[bdr529]

I use my ESW10 out of a pico dac/amp at work. When i tried just using the amp section with my ipod 5g i was not blown away by the differences to say the least. I could detect a difference, but it was really subtle. The dac/amp hooked up to my computer is another story though, that improvement is quite large which I attribute to the good dac circuitry used.

 

[Lil' Knight]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PowerPod /img/forum/go_quote.gif Interesting - I wonder if say the iPhone and Touch differ much from the latest Classic?

I'm not sure about the latest Classic but I much prefer the latest Touch's sound than that of the older Classic.

 

[stang]

The latest Classic is said to have very good sound though...never tried it myself however.