burn in maybe? heres a section from headphoneaddicts big reveiw
This is an amp that clearly benefits from burn-in, and at 350 hours it will sound much better than it did out of the box. Taken from my notes on 8/23/08, using the MS-1 with the amp right out of the box, I felt the upper mids were just a little strident/prominent. It sounded punchy with good bass, good separation and detail, but soundstage somewhat was somewhat constricted. There was some obvious sibilance with Diana Krall "Girl in the Other Room" and a few other songs. The volume knob was around 11 o'clock for normal listening. Without any burn-in, even my Creative Xmod with 200 hours was smoother and more transparent/natural with bigger soundstage.
With less than 15 minutes on the amp and a 2 hour break, I came back and switched to the RS-1. The cymbals shimmer and hang with nice decay, but there is still sibilance on Diana Krall. The upper mids are still prominent but it is more transparent with the RS-1. With bowls bass should be a little stronger than it is, while flats improve the bass and sibilance but shrink the soundstage. Volume with RS-1 is now around 10 o'clock for normal listening, and I will never listen as loud as it gets at 12 o'clock. Trying some test tomes, out of the box the 20Hz tone is in-audible and missing, 25Hz okay, 31.5Hz strong. I had to EQ out 2 db at 2Khz, and 3 db out at 4Khz and 8Khz to fix the prominent upper mids.
At 40 hours of burn-in using 20 min pink noise alternating with 2 min silence I switched to HD600, which adds about 1 hour to the volume knob and I have it at 11 for normal listening and 1 o'clock for very loud music. The sound was nice and warm but clear, crisp and detailed. The HD600 really sounds better with the V1 than with my earlier tests with RS-1 or MS-1. At 60 hours with HD600 I notice a big jump in bass, almost too much midbass, but at the same time it is a little smoother upper mids too. With that kind of change, I decided to wait until the DAC was burned in at the halfway point thru the 300 hour recommended burn-in before listening again. At 164 hours with the RS-1 again, I was able to reduce the EQ settings in half vs the out of box EQ settings above. I then moved it over to my iRiver to finish burn-in via the analog input as recommended by the manufacturer, who stated the DAC and anolog inputs use different circuits and I should split the 300 hours between them. (note: I have over 2000 hours on Predator, over 1000 on Viper, over 600 hours on Pico Boa and Micro Amp and Lyrix with USB DAC Cable, and 350 on V1 for the review).
By 9/7/08 the V1 has 350 hours (164 on DAC), and I am ready for listening. Since it is not quite up to the level of the Predator, D2 Viper with rolled opamps or Pico, I returned the D2 Viper to the stock opamps for the comparisons. The day before I had run the test tones again with RS-1 to compare to out of the box results, and 20Hz is now clearly audible on the V1 while 25Hz is only slightly rolled off vs out of the box where it was not as good. The Pico and Predator are audible to 16Hz, and have more energy at 20Hz than V1, with D2 Boa slightly behind those. The V1 bass extension is similar to the Boa and superior to the stock D2 Viper which is noticeably rolled off at 20Hz. After testing the bass extension with the RS-1 vs out of the box, I had to take a break for my daughter's 15th birthday and come back the next day to start listening to music, so I burned it in an extra 24 hours.
I started with the HD600 and stock cable and found that the tonal balance and Timbre is nice, with good bass, mids and treble. There is no boosted bass, just flat and extended and almost as strong as the Predator but not quite. Certainly no lack in bass, and not bass light. With Infected Mushroom "Dancing with the Kadafi" the bass is rockin', punchy and hits hard. That was my first WoW! moment with the V1 amp (goosebumps and all when I was at 164 hours), which is why I chose to start with HD600. Switching to string bass, it is not supposed to hit hard and it sounds like it should - crisp and quick and present. So it isn't over-boosting the bass levels but it is bangin' when it is supposed to be.
Mids are rich and warm, and not very peaky or resonating in the ears or head, although there does seem to be a mild low mids "boxy" coloration that is very similar to that of the D2 Boa, especially with close miked female vocals. This makes some female vocals like Shelby Lynn in "Just a little Lovin" or Diana Krall in "Girl in the Other Room" sound slightly artificial or less transparent vs Predator/Pico/D2 Viper/HR MicroAmp. Similar to the D2 Boa, I have a hard time noticing this coloration with acoustic and wind instruments or electronic program material, as it's mostly only an issue with vocals. And, this is not with all vocals - switching to Herbie Hancock "River:The Joni Letters" with Nora Jones singing the first track, her voice seems more natural with both the V1 and D2 Boa, and male vocals like Jack Johnson "Sleep Through the Sttaic sound fine with them too.
Treble has a nice sparkle, shimmer and decay to cymbals, and pianos have a sharp quick attack but do not drill into the head. With HD600 the V1 does not accentuate the sibilance present in the Diana Krall recording above, which is a test album I use for that purpose. I also use the "Girl in the Other Room" to test for lower midrange coloration as Diana Krall is very close mike'd and it is easy to push the lower mids over the top as above (which is exactly what I heard).
The soundstage is similar to the 2MOVE, not too close and not too distant, although it is somewhat more forward than the Predator (making it closer to that of the 2MOVE). It is certainly more forward sounding than the Pico, D2 Viper and D2 Boa or HR Micro Amp, while the other amps have a larger more open soundstage vs the V1. Listening via the USB DAC for the entire review, despite being somewhat forward sounding there is still a good sense of space and ambience - but there is a little less transparency than with the Predator or other amps, like watching through a clean window instead of an open window. It does seem to be a little more micro-detailed than the Headstage Lyrix USB DAC or iBasso D1 USB DAC were. The V1 DAC is also not as smooth sounding as the Pico (or the other amps to some degree), but I wonder how much of that is the Pico and other amps being less forward and not having the slightly more pronounced upper mids (2KHz-8Khz) of the V1.
A nice loud but enjoyable volume level setting with HD600 and the Macbook is about 11-1 o'clock, depending on the program material. I find listening to most music at 2 o'clock is too loud for me, and 3 o'clock just starts to clip a little with no change going higher than 3 o'clock. Again, I would likely never want to listen loud enough to clip with HD600. The V1 has no problem driving the HD600, and the same volume at 11 o'clock with the V1 needs 1:30 o'clock in high gain with the D2 Boa. 5 o'clock (max) on the Boa is like 1:30 - 2 o'clock on the V1, and it sounds like the V1 can double the power of the Boa by 3 o'clock (sounds a good 3-4 db louder). On quiet classical music with wide dynamic range, this is a big plus over the Boa and stock D2 Viper.
This amp really seems to have some nice synergy with the HD600, and for $99 is a screamin' deal for you HD600 owners. It makes the HD600 sound good with all types of music - even if the Predator and Pico are a little better, they may not be $400 better for many people. The D2 Viper with rolled opamps and 2MOVE and Micro Amp are also slightly better with HD600, but still 2-3x the cost. This is a $99 amp that competes well with $170-180 amps driving HD600 (Stock Viper, Boa and Headstage). But switching from HD600 to the RS-1 (APS V3 cable and bowls) while I was listening to Jack Johnson is where those prominent uppers mids (2KHz - 8KHz) become more noticeable. After a few hours with the HD600 and stock cable, switching to the RS-1 with APS V3 cable was almost a shock to me.
As mentioned before, with the V1 fresh out of the box and driving the RS-1 I had to EQ out about 3 db at 2, 4 and 8Khz, but with the stock HD600 I needed NO EQ. After 164 hours of burn-in I had found that the amount of EQ needed with RS-1 and bowls had decreased to only removing 1 or 1.5 db at those frequencies, which is when I switched to burning it in without the DAC (so no EQ). Hoping to be able to make due without any EQ, I decided to get my ears acclimated to the RS-1 by listening to only the RS-1 for a while. I also switched to some non-vocal jazz music again - Guinea Pig "Kool Kats".
This was much less glaring, and the sax, trombone, trumpet, bass, drums and cymbals sounded much better and I could enjoy it with no EQ at all; although the EQ would bring it more in line with the other amps. Switching to Tsuyoshi Yamamoto "Smooth Jazz Festival" 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' had the saxophone sounding a little edgier than the Predator, Pico or Boa until I applied the EQ again, although I could enjoy it without EQ. Pianos on this Tsuyoshi Yamamoto were not quite as enjoyable without the EQ as the other music. Moving back to some vocals with Shelby Lynn "Just a Little Lovin" (once my ears were acclimated) I found it sounded better with no EQ. But Jack Johnson still sounded a bit edgy. Most Jazz and Classical as well as electronic and new age sounded fine with the RS-1 and bowls driven by the V1, and for those albums that didn't sound their best, using the mild EQ brings them into balance and then it sounds very good with RS-1.
A light bulb went off in my head, and I switched the RS-1 back to flats like I tried whn out of the box, and voila - much better! This also helped somewhat with the lower mids coloration that I heard. I definitely prefer using the Grado flat pads with the RS-1 and V1 amp, which reduced ANY need for EQ of the upper mids. At this point the RS-1 became much more enjoyable with the V1, and it was almost up to the level of the D2 Viper and Boa with the RS-1, but not quite. Jack Johnson was now pleasant with no EQ. Even with the flat pads, many classical recordings such as "Handel's Messiah" still retained a good sense of space and ambience, despite the smaller soundstage with the flats. In doing the volume comparisons using RS-1, I found that a volume setting of 11 o'clock on the V1 with Infected Mushroom corresponded to a 1 o'clock in high gain on the stock D2 Viper. 12 o'clock was quite loud and rockin' with the V1 and electronica!
Switching to the Ultrasone Edition 9, the V1 was back in its element again, and paired well with these headphones. I enjoyed the V1 with the Edition 9 as much as I enjoyed it with the HD600, although I noticed the Pico has more bass with the Edition 9 than the V1, as did the Predator, D2 Viper and Boa. A little experimentation showed me that I can play the V1 louder with the Edition 9 without being over-whealmed with bass (which is easy for me due to my chronic tinnitus, which wasn't helped any by firing a firearm at a charging bear two weeks ago). However one of the advantages that the Edition 9 have over other my headphones is not having to play them loudly to get a good frequency response and liveliness. With Edition 9 and some music like Infected Mushroom "Dancing with the Kadafi" from the B.P. Empire album, I thought the V1 was better than the Pico, but with live jazz and classical music on the Edition 9 I found the Predator and Pico were the best again, followed by the Micro Amp and the two D2 amps. I don't have the loaner 2MOVE to compare, and didn't have time to roll the D2 Viper opamps again.
Typically with the Edition 9 and Pico, Viper or Boa the normal listening level is with the volume knob at 10 o'clock in HI gain, and it is at 9:30 with the V1. The Predator HI gain with Edition 9 puts the volume knob at about 9 o'clock! As a point of reference, medium gain on Predator puts the volume at 10 o'clock and low gain puts it at 12 o'clock.
I do not have my Denon D2000 while they are being re-terminated as balanced 4-pin (with SE adapter), so I tried my 600 ohm AKG K240M that used to be owned by Stevie Wonder (eBay seller bought them from his ex-wife, and he was selling all kinds of stereo equipment and DAT with brail dots on them, and they smell like his hair gel
). Anyway, these are quite difficult to drive. Moderate and good volume levels can be obtained at max volume without clipping the V1 (5 o'clock). The V1 can play much louder with the AKG K240M than the stock D2 Viper, which I maxed out in high gain at 5 0'clock and still found the D2 Viper to be about 5-6 db quieter. The D2 Boa was maybe 1-2 db louder than the Viper with these 600 ohm AKG, but it still couldn't attain the higher levels of the V1 when at max volume. The Predator in high gain at 3 o'clock could beat the stock Viper volume and match the Boa in volume, but it would clip at anything past 3 o'clock with the 240M. Only the Pico could exceed the V1 volume levels with these headphones, by at least another 2-3 db! With the Pico and V1, maybe 10% of my music had a high enough input signal to make me back down the volume knob by half an hour from max volume to avoid clipping. And, transparency with the AKG was quite good, possibly even better than with the HD600 which were previously my favorite with this amp! (although the bass is not as strong as the HD600). All the amps were very transparent with the AKG K240M and these are great headphones, but only the Pico and V1 could really do them any justice without resorting to a desktop amp, with the Pico still a clear lead. Wow again, to be in second place with these headphones was a big surprise!
Next were IEM. I switched to Klipsh Image X10 IEM which can be a little harder to drive vs my high sensitivity Custom IEM's. The volume for normal listening was 9:30 on the V1, and by 10 o'clock it was moderately loud volumes and higher than I typically listen at. 11 o'clock was louder than I will ever use, and clipping started at 12 o'clock with extremely loud volume levels. I hear no hiss with music paused until I get past 10:30 o'clock, so it isn't likely that I will ever hear hiss between songs when listening to the Image at loud volumes. With analog input and the music paused I don't hear any hiss until 11:30 o'clock (using iRiver H140). The power switch is built into the volume knob, like the Pico and Ibasso D2 amps, but there is less channel imbalance at low volume settings in the V1 vs those other amps - so I can play it very quietly with the Image X10 without problems, like when going to sleep or for background music. The D2 Boa could not play the Image quite as loud, and was clipping in low gain by 2 o'clock. I thought the V1 had good synergy with the Image X10, and was very enjoyable - tight strong bass, warm mids, crisp sparkly highs (using shallow insertion of the Image into ear canals). The lower mids were a little more pronounced with the Image on vocals than I liked, but were acceptable.
Last ones to try were my Freq Show custom IEM, which are so sensitive that I actually hear music with the V1 volume all the down and just above the power-on setting! I turned up the volume to 10:30 and heard hiss with the music paused, and backed down to 10 o'clock where the hiss went away. I un-paused the music and was blasted out of my skull by the loud music! I will never listen to the Freq Show at 10 o'clock, with 9 to 9:15 o'clock being a normal listening level and 9:30 to 9:45 is fairly loud. Again, I can play them very quietly without a channel imbalance, but not as quietly as I could the less sensitive Image. Still, it was acceptable for low level "go to sleep music" volumes.
The sound with the Freq Show was not bad with some music, very good with others, and a big problem with others - this being the fault of the IEM not the amp. Similar to the problems with using my Freq Show with the Meier Headsix or D2 with LM6172 opamp, vocals like Shelby Lynn "Just a Little Lovin" or Diana Krall "Girl in the Other Room" had the lower mids too pronounced and caused my ears to ring and roar. For those of you whom have read my reviews linked in my public profile (about me section), you know that with my ears the Freq Show are very picky about amps, and I almost returned these IEM for a refund. A few other people have reported the Freq causing ringing and roaring in their ears as well, not just me, although it is a very small minority of people. For example, my Headsix (lo gain) is great with Livewires but I didn't like it with my Freq; while Germania loved her Freq Show with her Headsix, so I do think it is "ear" dependent with these IEM. I picked these IEM for the review because they are popular and are the most fickle ones I own in regards to which amp I choose. With the Jack Johnson "Sleep Through the Static" they sounded good, and with non-vocal jazz and classical music I also have no problem with the resonance and ringing, but some (not all) acoustic guitar and piano music would ring in my ears too.
Again, THIS IS A PROBLEM WITH MY FREQ SHOW, not the amp - but the V1 amp doesn't help the problem any. This problem being uncommon to other people made me decide that it will not affect it's ranking below. I usually have to use either my Pico or Predator, or D2 Viper with rolled opamps for these IEM, or I have to play them very quietly if I don't have the right amp available. That being said, at very quiet volume levels like 9:00 - 9:15 o'clock then Shelby Lynn or pianos do sound nice with the Freq. My highly sensitive Livewires custom IEM are out in my car and not tested, but they sound good with every amp I have tried so I have no fear using them with the V1.
