[tmd24]

I live in Southern California and my order arrived in 2 business days via First Class Mail. I'm guessing if you ordered now, it would arrive before your trip. I can't vouch for the consistency of the US Post Office though.  
 
Quote:

Ohhh. Gotcha! Good deal. I wonder if I order now, I can get mine by Dec 24th. I'm going on vacation out of the country, and really want an amp for the 16 hour flight!
 


 
 

 

 

[PANGES]

Woot! Going to place my order then. I don't mind a fubbered case as long as I can get a nice one later.
 
Where do they ship from? 2 business days is pretty quick.
 
Quote:

I live in Southern California and my order arrived in 2 business days via First Class Mail. I'm guessing if you ordered now, it would arrive before your trip. I can't vouch for the consistency of the US Post Office though.  
 
Quote:

Ohhh. Gotcha! Good deal. I wonder if I order now, I can get mine by Dec 24th. I'm going on vacation out of the country, and really want an amp for the 16 hour flight!
 


 
 

 

 
 

 

[tmd24]

It looks like they're in Illinois.

 

[PANGES]

Quote:

It looks like they're in Illinois.

You are all much smarter (and less lazy) than I. Ordered!
 
edit: Wow, I've already received an email from John of JDS, and he said my amp will ship tomorrow. lol. Ridiculously quick. Really looking forward to listening to this. 
 
 

 

[Hi-fi Wigwammer]

Just be sure to give it at least 6 hours use before serious listening. Straight out of the box the amp sounds very open and spacious, but slightly hard and edgy. A few hours later and it was superb in every way. I'd be interested to hear some comparisons against some of the established competition. I suspect the C421 would do pretty well!

 

[PANGES]

Quote:

Just be sure to give it at least 6 hours use before serious listening. Straight out of the box the amp sounds very open and spacious, but slightly hard and edgy. A few hours later and it was superb in every way. I'd be interested to hear some comparisons against some of the established competition. I suspect the C421 would do pretty well!

I wish I could compare it to the Practical Devices XM6 and Headstage Arrow, but I'm still waiting on my Arrow replacement (both the input jacks are messed up and I only get sound in one channel), and I've returned the XM6, because it wasn't practical since it was physically too big to carry around; however, I suspect they would sound really similar since, if i recall correctly, all three of the amps run the AD8620.
 
edit: Nevermind, they don't run the same opamps. lol. I had the XM6 with the AD8397. I believe the Arrow ran the same.. I can't find info on the headstage site to confirm.
 
 

 

[raddogz]

I received my C421 last week and am in absolute love with it.  
 
I have paired it with the  V-Moda M80 headphones and it is so much better.  The sound stage is nice and open.  It definitely opened up the muddiness in the mids in the headphones.

 

[PANGES]

Just received my c421. Kudos to John for the quick shipping!
 
The outer case has scratches and scuffs (as we were notified about before ordering), but they're not as bad as I was expecting. The faceplates don't quite line up 100%, and a couple of the screws don't really sit flush with the faceplate, but it doesn't really bother me. 
 
I like the feel of the switches. Sturdy, but not too stiff. The volume wheel is easy to move, but not too loose. To me, the feel of the switches and volume wheel are perfect. 
 
I brought a variety of IEM's with me to work today for some initial listening. Unfortunately for me, my UE4's are unusable with the c421. At listening volumes and low gain on the amp, I get a channel imbalance. It goes away if I turn the volume up, but then it's too loud. I was in a similar situation with the Practical Devices XM6; however, the XM6 had a 75ohm impedance switch. My Headstage Arrow didn't have this issue, either... perhaps that might be a nice addition to the c421 if John decides to make a newer version or something. I wish there was a gain setting lower than the "low" setting on the c421 for my more sensitive IEM's.
 
As far as the bass boost goes, it wasn't quite what i was expecting. I was expecting it to add a tight, firm, punch, which it does; however, it adds a little more than that. I can't quite pin it down, but it possibly adds a little bit of warmth... almost tubey sounding? I'll listen more and figure it out tonight.
 
Anyhoo, I'll do more listening later when it quiets down at work. I've brought a little variety of IEM's with me: Etymotic ER4S, Ultimate Ears UE4 Pro, Ultimate Ears TF10, Westone 4. I shall report back later!
 
 
 

 

[gelocks]

Just got mine today also!!!
As mentioned, the casing is not in that bad of a shape. Sure it does have scratches
and the faceplates are not all that smooth, but I don't have a major problem with that
(and anyway they are getting replaced...)
 
Out of the box, my bass boost switch is "broken" or just not properly attached so I'll get on it.
 
As far as sound, just testing with my Denon D5000 and my netbook... all I can say is.. HUGE difference.
Amp seems to drive these Denons WAY MUCH better than the JDSLabs Cmoy 2.03!!! I'll need to listen more carefully though.
 
 

 

[PANGES]

bah! I'm waiting to get off work so I can go home and try them with the D2000. 
 
Quote:

Just got mine today also!!!
As mentioned, the casing is not in that bad of a shape. Sure it does have scratches
and the faceplates are not all that smooth, but I don't have a major problem with that
(and anyway they are getting replaced...)
 
Out of the box, my bass boost switch is "broken" or just not properly attached so I'll get on it.
 
As far as sound, just testing with my Denon D5000 and my netbook... all I can say is.. HUGE difference.
Amp seems to drive these Denons WAY MUCH better than the JDSLabs Cmoy 2.03!!! I'll need to listen more carefully though.
 
 

 
 

 

[gelocks]

Lol!
At work is where I'll properly test it. So tomorrow I
Expect to listen to it at least for 6 hours... Already had them on
for 2 hours and it sounds excellent. As someone else mentioned
I also heard hissing when the player was paused but it definitely
was at a level in which I'll probably never listen to! :-]

 

[PANGES]

Yeah, when it comes to hiss, as long as I can't hear it at listening levels, I don't really care. 
 

 

[Anathallo]

I only mentioned it because I know some people are super sensitive about that.  I personally am adoring the amp right now, I have no need for any other portable (whereas previously I would switch based on which can/genre of music i was listening to).
 
Quote:

Yeah, when it comes to hiss, as long as I can't hear it at listening levels, I don't really care. 
 

 

 

[PANGES]

How funny... my least favorite IEM's seem to sound the best with the c421. 
 
I've been spending some time here and there with different IEM's, and it seems my Etymotic ER4S benefit the most from this. The ER4S have never really been my cup of tea, but I've always kept them around, because I love how well they isolate when I need to go on airplanes. The reason I've never liked the ER4S is because they've always sounded really anemic/cold... if that makes sense. lol. With the bass boost on the c421, it adds some warmth and thickness to the music and just makes it sound more "full" to me... It just seems to fill the mid-low end that I always like to have in my headphones/IEM's. With the rest of my IEM's, I've been running the c421 without the bass boost, and have been enjoying it a bit more. 
 

 

[gelocks]

Are you guys getting any kind of interference with the amp?
I'm getting some interference/cracking sounds when I touch the enclosure
with my fingers (i.e. if I touch it with a rubberband, my wallet, etc, it doesn't produce anything.)
 
Right now I have my Archos 7 --> c421 --> denon D5000
 
Also, are you guys finding this amp "bright" by any chance?
(I'm not the best judge right now though... I have a cold!!!! )