[Carlsan]

...
Also, how did your cable pair with the CL2?
THE Neotech one from Ali.
.

Ah yes, the 26AWG 7N Crystal Copper cable. Still waiting on shipping. I gave the seller a few extra days, but may cancel if not shipped by the end of the week. They probably order supplies from Japan per order.

 

[jbr1971]

Hi all,

After my girlfriends dogs decided to chew my DIY CIEM's to unsalvageable pieces, I did some research and came across the CL2's, which she bought for me.

I am up to almost 72 hours of burn-in and am really enjoying them so far (I have planar over ears as well and enjoy the sound). I bought a 3.5mm male balanced to 2.5mm female balanced adapter to use with the OEM silver cable. I'm really impressed with the sound from the balanced side. Not sure about the cable yet. I'm letting it burn-in a bit.

I am definitely hearing subtle things in tracks that I have not heard before from other IEM's. The CL2's do a great job of mimicking my over ears.

Right now I am using Spinfit CP240 L's because I have huge ear canals and am unable to get a good seal with regular L tips. Does anyone know of any companies that make XL tips? The Spinfits fit okay, but the isolation is not the greatest. I am thinking of using the Symbio foam transplant idea from earlier in the thread to try to fix that. A Symbio/Spinfit hybrid might be my best hope of a good fitting tip.

Also, does anyone know of a company that makes good 3.5mm balanced cables? I am not finding many given the rarity of 3.5mm balanced devices.

Waiting to hear back about a new job, so hopefully I will be able to get a new cable or 2 once I have a some extra money.

Jody

 

[Kitechaser]

Hi all,

After my girlfriends dogs decided to chew my DIY CIEM's to unsalvageable pieces, I did some research and came across the CL2's, which she bought for me.

I am up to almost 72 hours of burn-in and am really enjoying them so far (I have planar over ears as well and enjoy the sound). I bought a 3.5mm male balanced to 2.5mm female balanced adapter to use with the OEM silver cable. I'm really impressed with the sound from the balanced side. Not sure about the cable yet. I'm letting it burn-in a bit.

I am definitely hearing subtle things in tracks that I have not heard before from other IEM's. The CL2's do a great job of mimicking my over ears.

Right now I am using Spinfit CP240 L's because I have huge ear canals and am unable to get a good seal with regular L tips. Does anyone know of any companies that make XL tips? The Spinfits fit okay, but the isolation is not the greatest. I am thinking of using the Symbio foam transplant idea from earlier in the thread to try to fix that. A Symbio/Spinfit hybrid might be my best hope of a good fitting tip.

Also, does anyone know of a company that makes good 3.5mm balanced cables? I am not finding many given the rarity of 3.5mm balanced devices.

Waiting to hear back about a new job, so hopefully I will be able to get a new cable or 2 once I have a some extra money.

Jody

Here is a 3.5mm balanced cable that you can get from plussound. Plussound x series.
150 dollars for an OCC Copper litz 26 gauge.
If you wanna spend a bit more you can get an 8 wire.

This is the PW audio #5 (26 gauge), also comes in 3.5mm balanced config. This is the cable to get if you care about timbre in particular. Comes in 4 and 8 wire configurations.

Here is the Hansound Zen 4. Between these 3 cables, you should be good to go.
Also comes in 4 or 8 wires.

 

[Kitechaser]

Hi all,

After my girlfriends dogs decided to chew my DIY CIEM's to unsalvageable pieces, I did some research and came across the CL2's, which she bought for me.

I am up to almost 72 hours of burn-in and am really enjoying them so far (I have planar over ears as well and enjoy the sound). I bought a 3.5mm male balanced to 2.5mm female balanced adapter to use with the OEM silver cable. I'm really impressed with the sound from the balanced side. Not sure about the cable yet. I'm letting it burn-in a bit.

I am definitely hearing subtle things in tracks that I have not heard before from other IEM's. The CL2's do a great job of mimicking my over ears.

Right now I am using Spinfit CP240 L's because I have huge ear canals and am unable to get a good seal with regular L tips. Does anyone know of any companies that make XL tips? The Spinfits fit okay, but the isolation is not the greatest. I am thinking of using the Symbio foam transplant idea from earlier in the thread to try to fix that. A Symbio/Spinfit hybrid might be my best hope of a good fitting tip.

Also, does anyone know of a company that makes good 3.5mm balanced cables? I am not finding many given the rarity of 3.5mm balanced devices.

Waiting to hear back about a new job, so hopefully I will be able to get a new cable or 2 once I have a some extra money.

Jody

Give this a read.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/monster-supertips-size-comparisons-pictures.512941/

 

[cj3209]

Good time to buy the CL2:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cl2-planar-canjam-code-10-off.900686/

10% off is not a small amount.

 

[Steve160k]

Having been to the Bristol HiFi show today (UK) I had the chance to play around and spend some time with some high end closed back headphones which I am actually in the market for at the moment. I know IEM's & headphones can be apples & oranges, but I wanted to know. Listened to Sennheiser HD820, Audeze LCD4, Focal Stellia, Sony MDZ1R - all with their own respective branded headphone amps. All using high-resolution files. One thing was very clear - the CL2 stands head & shoulders with any of these. In fact - to my ears, they were not bettered. Paired with my Chord Hugo two the CL2 are my choice by some margin. In fact, I was very disappointed with the performance of two of the aforementioned headphones. You can read all you want online & hifi magazines but you cannot beat listening & knowing yourself. Trust your own ears. To me, the CL2 are simply phenomenal at reproducing music, & great value for money.

 

[Kitechaser]

Having been to the Bristol HiFi show today (UK) I had the chance to play around and spend some time with some high end closed back headphones which I am actually in the market for at the moment. I know IEM's & headphones can be apples & oranges, but I wanted to know. Listened to Sennheiser HD820, Audeze LCD4, Focal Stellia, Sony MDZ1R - all with their own respective branded headphone amps. All using high-resolution files. One thing was very clear - the CL2 stands head & shoulders with any of these. In fact - to my ears, they were not bettered. Paired with my Chord Hugo two the CL2 are my choice by some margin. In fact, I was very disappointed with the performance of two of the aforementioned headphones. You can read all you want online & hifi magazines but you cannot beat listening & knowing yourself. Trust your own ears. To me, the CL2 are simply phenomenal at reproducing music, & great value for money.

I had the same exact experience when I auditioned headphones in the 3k plus range. With a proper amp the CL2 was racing past them like it wasn't even funny.
I have auditioned quite a few top end iems and full size cans since I have gotten the CL2, none come close to rendering a high res file like this planar does.
My conclusions, almost everything on head-fi is hype, these forums will drive you nuts if you believe every new iem out there is the best thing since sliced bread.
Trust your ears, and only your ears.

To add: my new cable comes in tomorrow, and WM1A the week after.
And then I am officially done spending money on iems, that is till the CL3 comes out.

 

[nicoial]

Kinda off topic but is there any possibility that I could have damaged the earphones when burning them in, straight from an iPhone, max volume with Spotify? I have some agressive tracks in my huge list, looping for some days. Haven't really "burned in" anything else, I usually just listen straight up from the box and try to enjoy them.. They sound amazing but I'm a bit "nojig" as we say in Sweden, which should translate into something like... "worrying in vain".

So... I usually/sometimes leave them running on my sofa straight from an "old" iPhone 7 (I use no amp/dap when doing this) just to "speed up" the burn-in process, full volume blasting Spotify. Can it hurt these magnificent IEMs?

 

[Kitechaser]

Kinda off topic but is there any possibility that I could have damaged the earphones when burning them in, straight from an iPhone, max volume with Spotify? I have some agressive tracks looping in my huge list for some days. Haven't really "burned in" anything else, I usually just listen straight up from the box and try to enjoy them.. They sound amazing but I'm a bit "nojig" as we say in Sweden, which should translate into something like... "worrying in vain".

So... I usually/sometimes leave them running on my sofa straight from an "old" iPhone 7 (I use no amp/dap when doing this) just to "speed up" the burn-in process, full volume blasting Spotify. Can it hurt these magnificent IEMs?

No chance of an iPhone damaging them. It can't get nearly loud enough.

 

[Duncan]

No chance of an iPhone damaging them. It can't get nearly loud enough.

There is an old hifi adage that runs true, that it is better to have low powered speakers on a high powered amplifer, than it is to have high powered speakers on a low powered amplifier... There is potential for clipping if running at max - clipping does far more harm than good (square waves = damage)

In the grand scheme of things Kitechaser is exactly correct, however - in the absolute terms, maximum volume - regardless of the equipment, is never a truly good plan.

 

[Kitechaser]

There is an old hifi adage that runs true, that it is better to have low powered speakers on a high powered amplifer, than it is to have high powered speakers on a low powered amplifier... There is potential for clipping if running at max - clipping does far more harm than good (square waves = damage)

In the grand scheme of things Kitechaser is exactly correct, however - in the absolute terms, maximum volume - regardless of the equipment, is never a truly good plan.

You make a great point, but I don't think the highest volume setting on an unmodded iPhone is maxing out its amp. There is headroom left over.
Then again, I could be wrong.

 

[cj3209]

I think the CL2s are actually priced too low. People in other forums don't take them seriously because they aren't $2k like EE or 64 audio models. They're missing out..

 

[Kitechaser]

Yup, the cable is an upgrade. Timbre is good, more micro details, forward treble, cleaner sound, wider/taller soundstage.
Sound is more balanced than the ALO Audio copper cable.
And this is straight out of the box.
Will have to wait a 100 hours of burn in before I can do final comparisons.
I kind of went the Russian Roulette route on cables, but this Dunu hybrid cable has been a pleasant surprise.

Add: After some A/B testing, timbre is better on the pure copper cable to my ears. I hope burn in can fix that on the hybrid. If anyone has experience with timbre improving with use, please chime in. That will pretty much make or break this cable for me.

 

[nicoial]

No chance of an iPhone damaging them. It can't get nearly loud enough.

Thank you for the reply! Was a bit worried, but I can't notice any sound-related problems (I dont have a second pair so I can't even compare even if i wanted) :-D I've tried listening straight from the iPhone and the volume can blast a tiny-little hole in my brain, but I can sit through it haha!

These IEM are such a treat, best I've heard and had (i still like the N5005 but they isolate so poorly compared and let my collegues know what i listen to when i crank up the volume).

I have listened to everything and I haven't found anything that sounds bad, except for that one time I somehow managed to mess with EQing all the frequencies to the max without knowing....

Realistically, could an iPhone without an external amp attached even destroy a "top of the line" IEM, even if I tried? Sorry if I somewhat hijack this thread with nonsense....

 

[Kitechaser]

Thank you for the reply! Was a bit worried, but I can't notice any sound-related problems (I dont have a second pair so I can't even compare even if i wanted) :-D I've tried listening straight from the iPhone and the volume can blast a tiny-little hole in my brain, but I can sit through it haha!

These IEM are such a treat, best I've heard and had (i still like the N5005 but they isolate so poorly compared and let my collegues know what i listen to when i crank up the volume).

I have listened to everything and I haven't found anything that sounds bad, except for that one time I somehow managed to mess with EQing all the frequencies to the max without knowing....

Realistically, could an iPhone without an external amp attached even destroy a "top of the line" IEM, even if I tried? Sorry if I somewhat hijack this thread with nonsense....

I wouldn't worry about an iPhone blowing out these iems. They are designed to withstand way higher levels of stress than any phone can generate.
@Duncan mentioned clipping issues, but an unmodded iPhone is not maxing out its amp, so you are more than okay.
EDM or playlists that have good levels of bass are great for burning in these iems, the diaphragm needs to move to loosen up. Bass response, especially micro details improve with use. I heard changes up to the 350 hour mark.