[D_S]

Hello Head-Fi!!! Good to be back.

Its been quite a while since ive posted here, 6-7 years or so. I havent lost the love for the music, just the bug to upgrade. But now its back

.

Ive been though a lot of equipment in the past but much of the stuff tossed around here now is new to me. Ive spent the last week digging through the archives and reading hundreds of older posts to get caught up.

What im looking for is a portable piece or two to be driven without an amp on the street and on the move from an iPod touch, and with an amp/dac at the laptop in the hotel/flat. Most listening will be done on the go.

Im focusing heavily on the Sleek Customs, Livewires, Freq Show/SuperFreQ along with a pair of Yuin PK1/2/OK1/2. UE and Westone models will be considered too but given my listening criteria I dont know if 2-4x the money would be worth it.

My previous equipment can be seen in my signature to base recommendations off of, I loved all of it.

Thanks for your time. Im glad to be back in the forums and looking towards bouncing ideas and reviews back and forth. Cheers!

edit:
Sorry I posted this quick last night and forgot to include the details of my music preferences and sonic prefrences given that most people probably havent heard my previous associated equipment.

For music I like it all really, rock from the classic stuff to power metal to folk to punk rock, love the funk, the blues, bluegrassish fusion (bela fleck), reggae, hip-hop, all sorts of jazz from the classics to big band to piano to string quartets and recently lots of classical. Pretty much everything except for pop, alternative rock, country and techno.

For my sonic preferences I obviously like a good all-arounder with great impact and engagement, a deep and quick bass response (not to be confused with mid-bass bloat), sparkly but smooth non fatigueing highs and a beautiful inviting mid range. My favorite headphones were the Sony CD-3000s and Grado RS-1s depending on what I was listening to. I could deal with the lower Grados out of my Cary on triode mode but on portable sources I got fatigued after a while. With my Pro-Acs id use ultra-linear mode to rock out and triode mode to relax and become engulfed. Incase youre not familar with the Response 2.5 theyve been updated and are called the Response D28 now. Ive demoed lots of the headphones from 6-7 years back and I didnt really like most of the AKGs except for the K1000 or Sennheisers except for the Orpheus for classical but I never tried the HD25. I havent tried this newer stuff and ive never demoed IEMs so thats why im asking here.

As I said I will be using the iPod unamped for portable duties and with a dac/amp back at the hotel so I need a phone that wont fall apart being driven from a source with a low power output. About half of my music is FLAC and half is various bit-rate MP3s from CDs that ive long since lost. Obviously the FLAC sounds better but I dont want to give up listening to half of my music collection either.

__________________
Home System (sold):
ProAc Response 2.5 Speakers, Purist Audio Design Aqueous Speaker Cables, Cary SLI-80 Signature Tube Amp, Purist Audio Design Aqueous Interconnects, 47 Laboratory Shigaraki DAC, NEC MultiSpin 6xe with Caddy and Virtual Dynamics Nite Original Power Cables all around. Sony CD-3000, Grado RS-1, Alessandro MS-II, Grado SR-225, Grado SR-80, and Sennheiser HD580 (free from HeadRoom) for phones.

Portable System (current):
iPod 1G (original), Koss KSC-35

 

[azarel]

ue11?

 

[D_S]

Azarel-

Thanks for the suggestion. As I said ive been looking at the UEs as well but given my criteria im not sure if the cost is worth it. These will be used portablly and will be tossed around (often uncased) in my pockets and camera bag, thrown in and out of my ears, possibly sat on in taxis and rickshaws and left in random sketchy hotel rooms so Id feel much better about loosing $300 than $1000.

 

[D_S]

Nobody has direct experience with more than one of these customs?

Ive been able to find detailed comparisons of the FreeQ Music Makers vs Music Lovers crossovers and some for FreeQs vs Livewires but few go in depth with comparisons to headphone ive owned or make comparisons to the Sleek Customs or relate much about the ability of the headphones to be enjoyable with less than perfect recordings directly out of an iPod. It is possible up to a point for an audio component to be revealing and yet slightly forgiving of source imperfections. Revealing doesnt always = hyper analytical.

Also im reading conflicting reviews of the Yuins. Some say the PK1 is noticeably better unamped and others say it sounds the same as the PK2 or PK3. Also is it really possible for the OK1/PK1 to be driven to decent levels directly from the headphone out? For a reference my KSC-35 often need the volume of the iPod at max with a softer recording and moderate ambient noise.

Thanks in advance for any personal impressions!

 

[metllicamilitia]

Well, I can only comment on the Sleeks, although I didn't get custom tips for them. But I do know if you might be tossing them around and putting them in your pocket, don't go for the Sleek's. They are great IEM's but they need to be really taken care of. I had two cables go bad on me from putting them in my pocket that is why I am hoping I can make my own. If you can make your own cable for the Sleeks it would be alright with customs since the driver would be in the earpiece.

 

[MediumFi]

Given the use and abuse, I would expect the LW rotating connector would have a strong appeal. It's a brilliant strain relief.

After reading literally thousands of posts about LW & Freq, SQ seems pretty darned close for top of the line Freq & LW. If removable cables are important, Freq charges $100 plus premium for that capability.

 

[D_S]

metllica- So the actual cables went bad, not the connection interface? Im a little worried about the removable cables as ive had many headphone ports go bad on portable cdps and daps from the stress of the plug but ive never had a cable go bad on me. Did the copper actually fracture through or what?

Medium - Yeah the rotating connector looks good but I still have worries as stated above and the sleeks should have a rotating connector as well, its just the FreQ Shows with the non rotating connector. If the Super FreQs connection is stronger id have a chat with Todd as see if I could get the MM crossover with the fixed wire. Except for Grados with their drop of super glue construction ive never had a problem with a fixed cable before and im pretty hard on my stuff.

 

[vulc4n]

huh. I had no idea Sleek Audio was making customs now too.

I recently picked up a pair of SA6's but I'd really like to get customs at some point in the next month or so.

 

[D_S]

vulc4n - They havent been publicly released yet but they do exist. I think Jason is looking to establish a concrete ordering system before listing them on the site. Could you possibly give me your impressions of the SA6 vs the etys and beyer dt250-80s? Thanks!

 

[vulc4n]

Quote:

Originally Posted by D_S /img/forum/go_quote.gif vulc4n - They havent been publicly released yet but they do exist. I think Jason is looking to establish a concrete ordering system before listing them on the site. Could you possibly give me your impressions of the SA6 vs the etys and beyer dt250-80s? Thanks!

Hey D_S...

Admittedly I'd just gotten the Sleeks last week and it has been a very long time since I've used either the ER4 or the dt250-80s. In fac I'm not even going to talk about the dt250-80 as I never listened to them properly burned in.


I've gone back and reviewed the thread I posted after I got the ER-4p... I was rather underwhelmed with them. Quite honestly I found them thin rather than detailed. To be fair, I did not really give them a full trial or allow time for my ears to adjust. At that point I really wanted something that was easy to insert. I found the ER4 required way too much fiddling to get the proper comfortable seal.

IF you want to read the thread you can see it here.

Comparing the SA6 to the ER-4p I would say that they are significantly more musical... Even with the treble ++ tube in they not as clinical or harsh sounding as the etys were. Additionally they have enough low end to, at least to my ears, sound somewhat musical and convincing.

The only thing I can complain about with the SA6 is the slightly disappointing build quality and the lack of bass impact. The bass is certainly there, it just seems to lack a certain aggressiveness that I would like to hear with some of my music.

Admittedly this expectation probably comes from my home setup... Also, I'm sure increased quantity would be at the cost of detail, but its what I'm used to.

My Super.Fi 5 Pros also had a bit more low end impact. The Super.Fi 5 Pro was sort of my ideal on the lower end of the spectrum. Fun and impactful while still having some good details.'

I'm still playing with the bass chambers so maybe I will find a setup that gives me more what I'm looking for.

 

[D_S]

vulc4n - Thanks for the comparison. Have you tried the hot needle bass port mod? It can be done to the bass = ports to give a response inbetween bass = and bass + or to the bass + ports to give a sort of bass ++. Check it out here and here or do a search for more info, many people seem to like this mod (ive come accross lots of other posts in my reading but those are the two I pulled up with a quick google). If you havent tried this yet maybe it will give you the bass response you are looking for. (If it does please let me know) Cheers

 

[D_S]

No other opinions?

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Livewires are my top pick. They could be my only IEM and I'd be thrilled. Here is part #1 and #2 of my comparison review:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/f...ml#post4252937

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/f...ml#post4377013

 

[tomjtx]

FreQ has shut down till the new year, or so they say. They are not taking orders.

It seems they have no staff to answer the telephone, they are taking voice mail messages only.

So it would be safest to assume they may well not return.

I plan to order Livewires at this point.

 

[D_S]

Headphone Addict -

Thanks for the links. I started reading that thread but had to stop after 100 or so pages and then started skipping around randomly, continuing whenever the discussion seemed relevant to my search. The more I read that the Livewires have a similar sound signature to Grados the more I gravitate towards them and away from the Freq Show which have been mentioned to have a sound similar to the Sennheiser 580/600/650.

The one thing I dont understand is how many say that the Livewires and Freq Show sound similar with fairly subtle differences and yet people draw the respective parallels to the Grados and Senns when the RS1 and HD600 for example sound completely different to my ears. As someone who has had a chance to compare the mentioned IEMs and cans at hand could you possibly expand on the similarities and differences?


tomjtx -

Thanks for the info. I would be surprised if Freq shut down now, it seems (from my limited knowledge) that they are doing fairly well given that they often have a waiting list (turn around isnt immediate). Then again I know little about their situation and business expenses so I cant really speculate.