[Rat Salad]

 
I asked Santa for a Arrow 4g so I could cancel my order with Robert.   Santa said the elves that make the 4G are off in China on a business trip, then he cranked his TTVJ and laughed with a hardy HO-HO-HO.  Or maybe it was a ha ha ha ha ha ha.... I had a lotta egg nog
 
 
 
 
 

 

[smallberries]

Well.. at least Santa is answering his email!
Were you successful in cancelling your order
and getting a refund? 

 

[Rat Salad]

I actually kept the order, after all I haven't seen that money in 6 months now anyway so I will wait it out.
 

 

[evolutionx]

I will start believing in Santa Claus if mine get shipped by Christmas........

 

[fray92]

Anyone still get the full specification of the Headstage Arrow 3g that was posted on the headphonia homepage?
I tried to search on google but nothing come out, the closest is from ABI but it is not full.

 

[lazysleepyboi]

Quote:

Anyone still get the full specification of the Headstage Arrow 3g that was posted on the headphonia homepage?
I tried to search on google but nothing come out, the closest is from ABI but it is not full.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dannytang.ca%2FArrow_Manual.pdf&h=MAQGqHQNfAQE7cXbF0TdSa3xJQmAXQfsD2naNxWisQKhNUQ
 
not my link, someone else on the facebook page linked it. I haven't looked at it, but it should help you, i thin k

 

[dannytang]

That link was actually posted by me. It's the Arrow Manual, but it does list the changes from version to version but not it's specs per se.
 
Quote:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dannytang.ca%2FArrow_Manual.pdf&h=MAQGqHQNfAQE7cXbF0TdSa3xJQmAXQfsD2naNxWisQKhNUQ
 
not my link, someone else on the facebook page linked it. I haven't looked at it, but it should help you, i thin k

 

 

[fray92]

What i need to know is the amount of dB of the bass boost function of the 3g and 4g.
As i don't really care about the treble switch on the 4g, what will decide which generation of the arrow is for me is the bass boost switch.
Btw, have anyone of you experience hiss with the arrow when using a pair of low impedance and high sensitivity IEM?
The IEMs I currently own are IE8 and Westone 4, and the UM Miracle is expected to come next month.
Both of them are pretty sensitive and i hate hiss.
Will the impedance switch help removing the hiss (if there is any...) without altering the sound?

 

[s1rrah]

The 3G bass is tighter, more punchy. The 4G bass is more smooth/subtle. I prefer the 3G flavor, personally as it works so well with my Shure IEM's (which benefit hugely from the added punch). 
 
I don't think you can compare them in a "db" scenario as the entire tone is different. I've listened to both quite a bit and can say the bass boost is entirely different from 3G to 4G. 
 
Don't know about the hiss question, though. Never heard such via my own listening. 
 
.j
 
 

 

[fray92]

I already read about the signature of the bass boost swith of the 3g and 4g somewhere.
Just wonder about the dB, just curious, u know ^^

 

[smallberries]

I've spent a coupla days with my new Arrow 4G. Perhaps I have tin ears... with all eq and effects zeroed, I hear no difference with the amp inline. This is out of an iPod shuffle and a Macbook Pro, and into AKG 702's and Rain 9mm earphones. Listening to old and new recordings of acoustic jazz at a variety of volume levels. That's not to say things don't sound great -- just that they already sounded very clean and detailed without the amp, and the amp added no coloration (good or bad)
 
Meanwhile, the coloration you can add with switch settings is generally subtle and agreeable:
 
The bass boost is smooth and wide, and is a nice addition for both headphones, especially at low volume levels.
 
The treble boost is a nice addition for the 702's, and made a nylon-stringed guitar sparkle in just the right way.
 
The crossfeed is very subtle, but welcome on my mid-century jazz recordings where instruments tend to be hard-panned.
 
The combination of switched gain settings and a volume knob is very convenient.
 
Output to two headphones at once sounded great, and is a really nice feature.
 
I'm still debating whether to hang onto this thing. It is a very attractive, very cool device, no question. Maybe I needed hungrier phones to hear a bigger difference.
 
 
 

 

[Anaxilus]

If you can't hear a difference amp or not (which is a good sign for the Arrow 4G) then perhaps you should look to a better source as it appears the 702 and Arrow are already giving you everything those sources can deliver.  
 
Btw, you are double amping so the Arrow cannot pass through any more detail or information because it's already choked by the shuffle and Macbook Pro.  What you are listening to is the amplifier sections of those devices, not the Arrow.  If you have $20 in your wallet and I give you a bigger wallet, $100 won't just appear because you have a bigger wallet.  You'll need to find that $80 difference somewhere otherwise the bigger wallet is pointless.
 
You must listen at low volumes too as I find the idea of the shuffle driving the 702 to the same levels and dynamics as the Arrow perplexing otherwise.

 

[smallberries]

Double-amping isn't automatically suspect. The Arrow will load the output of the player differently than the headphone would, and eliminate that possible source of coloration. Yes, science demands that when evaluating the Arrow for coloration we supply it with a golden line-level signal. But the Arrow was intended for making your underpowered portable player sound better, portably, so that's a more relevant evaluation setup for me.
 
I was very surprised at how good the 702's sounded straight out of the iPod shuffle. I had never even bothered to listen critically to that setup, because it was so obviously going to suck. But, it doesn't, at my listening levels (which are very far from head-rattling, but do reproduce faint soundstage cues from the recordings)
 
 
 

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

But the Arrow was intended for making your underpowered portable player sound better, portably, so that's a more relevant evaluation setup for me.

That's one possibility.  For some of the rest of us it's to replace not only the underpowered integrated amp sections in portable DAPs but also to improve source transparency w/ better topology and components.  The intent of the Arrow is to do all these things in a ridiculously slim and pocketable package not just one of them.
 
The double amping comment was obviously about transparency and resolution wrt sounding 'better', not damping factor and output impedance.  I don't imagine the 702 at 62 ohms would have much of a problem w/ the shuffle and macbook in that regard.  It also has a pretty flat impedance curve and 105dB/mW.  Btw, have you tried the gain settings and compared?
 

 

[s1rrah]

 
I think you perfectly described what the Arrow amp (or any decent headphone amp for that matter) is intended to do...especially the fact that it simply amplifies the signal sent to it without adding anything or detracting from it. Your comments about the varied "features" of the Arrow amp are also good as for myself, these are the items which please me the most about the Arrow..the fact that for any given track, I can add bass or crossfeed or simply leave everything turned off. I especially enjoy the dual bass boost settings (mine is the "thumpier" 2g/3g variety) as my Shure SE535's benefit HUGELY from the first setting. And though I hardly use it at all, the 2nd bass setting is a life saver when listening to almost *all* early 80's indie/punk/post punk sort of stuff (Husker Du, Killing Joke, etc.) where the tendency, for whatever reason, was to mix very bass neutral.
 
Also, your comment about "hungrier" cans is also good and I think on point. Try some HD650's straight out of your iPod and then try the same cans out of the iPod/Arrow combination. ... the difference would be dramatic.
 
Best...
 
.joel
 
Quote:

I've spent a coupla days with my new Arrow 4G. Perhaps I have tin ears... with all eq and effects zeroed, I hear no difference with the amp inline. This is out of an iPod shuffle and a Macbook Pro, and into AKG 702's and Rain 9mm earphones. Listening to old and new recordings of acoustic jazz at a variety of volume levels. That's not to say things don't sound great -- just that they already sounded very clean and detailed without the amp, and the amp added no coloration (good or bad)
 
Meanwhile, the coloration you can add with switch settings is generally subtle and agreeable:
 
The bass boost is smooth and wide, and is a nice addition for both headphones, especially at low volume levels.
 
The treble boost is a nice addition for the 702's, and made a nylon-stringed guitar sparkle in just the right way.
 
The crossfeed is very subtle, but welcome on my mid-century jazz recordings where instruments tend to be hard-panned.
 
The combination of switched gain settings and a volume knob is very convenient.
 
Output to two headphones at once sounded great, and is a really nice feature.
 
I'm still debating whether to hang onto this thing. It is a very attractive, very cool device, no question. Maybe I needed hungrier phones to hear a bigger difference.