Shipped 9/21
Arrived 10/2
Listening with Er-6i
iPod source/TurboDock II/Cardas Mini Cable
GV powered by Powerex NiMH 9v battery
A few of quick notes:
1) I'm super familiar with the reference stuff on my iPod. In a lot of cases it is lossless. I have the SACD or DVD versions of a lot of it and I've heard it on all kinds of high end stereos and cans/amp combos. I've been listening to Thelonious Monk, Nickel Creek, Marc Cohn, Sarah McLaughlin, Norah Jones, Phish, Diana Krall, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Nickelback and Creed.
2) I have a iPod Video/5 which I upgraded to from a 4. I'm intimately familiar with not only the songs but these encodes. I run the iPod out to a Headroom little to power Senn 580s and Grado 325s. I also use these audio files to stream from my file server to my home theater/listening room.
3) I've been listening to the Er-6i IEMs for a couple months because the Xin Super-mini I had was noisy and the hiss drove me crazy. Previously I had been using the Xin in conjunction with the iPod to power full size cans.
I've been listening for a few hours now and the biggest improvements over the iPod amp I can hear are (in order of comfort/notice ability):
1) Soundstage is more defined and realistic. Each instrument in T. Monk's composer album, right now for example, has a place and when I close my eyes I can place the artists in an imaginary room and it sounds believable in my mind. This is a quality of Monk's recordings which I always enjoy and a big reason why he is in my reference materials.
2) The top third of sound range is far more comfortable to listen to. When I switched back to the headphone out on the iPod I found the treble instantly fatiguing. The low end is more accurate and full, for sure, but the biggest difference is in the way it handles the highs.
3) As an offshoot from #1 and #2 above, detail is far more discernable across the board. This is partially just from clearing the junk in the iPod amplification away from the stage but also a testament to the amp's ability to reproduce the sound as intended.
4) Overall I find it just warm enough for my tastes... I have the preference across the board in music gear. I appreciate accuracy and prefer it for cinema sound but when it comes to music I prefer to be bathed in the warmth of the audio... cheesy as that sounds, its the truth.
5) There is one more quality I'd like to convey... somewhat of a cross between #1 and #4. It sounds symphony hall-ish... not echoey. Not "spacious". If you've ever been to see the symphony in a nice symphony hall you'll know this quality I speak of. The sound travels to your ears and when it arrives it feels like... like purified water tastes. Clean. Like "pure"...
...there is something "fine" about this gadget. I think somewhere hiding inside Norm was able to build in a little bit of magic.
