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Koss Pro DJ 100 - The Budget King
Apr 27, 2012 at 9:01 PM Post #393 of 2,344
Currently listening to THE ELECTRONIC SPIRIT OF ERIK SATIE by THE MOOG SYNTHSIZER WITH THE CAMARATA CONTEMPORARY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA and i accidently turned it up +10 on the volume on my Onkyo TX-8555 stereo reciever. Woah! Was i shocked at the fullness of the treble and a solid slab of bass similar to the Koss UR40 but with more depth. Guess these guys are finally opening up after a week of use and i should probably be playing them louder to experiance their full magnificence.
 
Apr 27, 2012 at 10:24 PM Post #395 of 2,344
Any smooth male and female vocals will blow your mind. John Mayer and Dave Matthews is also quite mindblowing. My Zune HD plays my TB's great.
 
I suggest not using the fiio e11 because it's a darker amp. You definitely want a neutral amp here.
 
Apr 27, 2012 at 10:43 PM Post #396 of 2,344
 
Quote:
silentxstatik24 said:
Any smooth male and female vocals will blow your mind. John Mayer and Dave Matthews is also quite mindblowing. My Zune HD plays my TB's great.
 
I suggest not using the fiio e11 because it's a darker amp. You definitely want a neutral amp here.
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I haven't had any major problems with my E11. I've found that it's mids aren't as forward (sounding) as the E9/E7,/E5, but still not too bad.
I liked it the least when I used it with my Sansa Fuze by LOD. Right now I use it with my Clip without any LOD and it sounds great with the TB.
I'm a little disappointed it didn't do a better job with the HD-600
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Here's a quote from the E11 thread from ClieOS that matches my impressions somewhat:
 
Quote:
 
I can kind of related to the 'dark' impression. So far I have been using my E11 to on line-out, and it doesn't strike me as a dark sounding amp at all. But I just tried it on the headphone-out on my C30 and it does sound 'dark' - well, dark is really not the word I would choose, but like 'less forward' or 'not quite as mid centric'. It seems to pull the vocal slightly backward and spread the energy evenly to between treble and bass. That is what I think make it 'dark' sounding. The information is still there, but less compressed to the mid. Not sure if this is the same for the other listeners.
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Actually his description of using the headphone-out are how it sounds with using my Sansa Fuze with LOD Cable.
 
What's weird is that I had the E11 a few months ago and hated it with the Dj100 and M50. Don't know what's going on here, but I gave it another try.
 
I have to say though that it sounds best with my Total Airhead, but that's almost double the cost. Somehow the E9 with the large jack doesn't mess up it's sound signature. E9 is also good.
 
Guess i'll do some more E5 and E11 comparisons. One reason I love the E11 over the E5 is that the soundstage is much larger and more accurate. The soundstage from my E11 is even better than that of the Airhead!
It's just too bad I haven't gotten good results with the Sansa Fuze via LOD to E11, but to the Airhead it's perfect. I don't know what this means..
 
I need to try my Ipod Touch 2G more also. Once I tried my Clip+ and old Ipod Classic 3G I was hooked..My Ipod Touch seems a bit too treble happy.
 
 
BTW I really hate Utada Hikaru's US music (those lyrics..ugh), but her Japanese releases sound pretty impressive on the DJ100. I never have much luck finding new Jpop artists that I can stand. Sometimes I have better luck with Cantopop. Utada Hikaru's stuff is pretty crystal clear on the DJ100 to my ears.
 
If I had the Zune HD, I might not need an amp. I think Zombie_X said it drives it pretty well.
 
Oh yeah.. I don't know if I mentioned it, but the "Buena Vista Social Club" sounds good on the DJ100. The first track alone with the E11 and TB/DJ100 made me feel I had a semi-open (or open!) headphone on my head!! That was just with a Sansa Clip to E11!
 
E11 is pretty dang good for the DJ100, but I really need to find the ultimate portable amp for it..something under $100. Best i've found is the Airhead, but maybe i'll try the PA2V2 or Jdslabs Cmoy amps.
Maybe someone can try it with the O2
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I've gotten good results with many of the amps that play well with the M50 for some reason..
 
 
 
Apr 27, 2012 at 11:14 PM Post #398 of 2,344
Buying the DJ100 soon, from this, would I be better keeping my iPhone 3GS with 8GB and getting a Fiio E5/6 with and LOD ($30) or a Sansa Clip+ with 2GB and getting a cheap 16GB upgrade ($35). Just wondering which would be a better foot forward for these phones. Obviously I would get more space with the Sansa clip+, but would I get better power from the amp? I know you have already said a lot about amp setups with these phones, just asking a more specific question.
 
Apr 27, 2012 at 11:18 PM Post #399 of 2,344
tdockweiler:
 
I do not know if you will like this track.
 
It is Sakura in vocal-orchestral form conducted by a Japanse conductor (Eiji Oue) with the Minnesota Orchestra.  The track was produced by Reference Recordings in an album called "The RR Sound". 
 
Apr 28, 2012 at 12:43 PM Post #401 of 2,344
Listened to these all last night again. Put together a temporary setup in my bedroom to test various sources, cables and amps. The weird setup that impressed me the most was using a Sansa Clip+ connected to my Headroom Micro Amp by a Cardas HP1 cable I scored for $35 last week. With the TB I was using my ALO SXC cable I salvaged from my Q701! With this setup, the soundstage of the TB seemed wider than my HD-600 with Double Helix cable! It's hardly fair since I was only using a Sansa Clip as source.
 
Using the same setup, but with a Fiio E11 was quite impressive as well, but just not quite the same.
 
One thing I noticed is that on my DJ100/TB, there's some sub-bass in some acoustic music I have that's almost non-existed on nearly all my headphones I tried last night. Pretty much non-existent on the Q701, K601, A/250, HD-598. On the HD-600 it could be heard, but it was VERY subtle. I would say that on my KRK KNS-8400 it was more present than on any of the other headphones other than the DJ100/TB!! And they say the 8400 has no bass....
 
I made sure to switch amps/source to make sure there was no change and the Clip+ wasn't rolling off the bass. I'll triple check it when I get my HRT MSII out again.
 
The HD-600 still seems kind of muffled to me at times when compared to the TB. I know this makes no sense. The new cable I got in helps, but it's still annoying. There's a few tracks from Ali Farka Toure that are really muddy on the HD-600 or HD-650. Wonder why?
 
BTW there's a track from Ali Farka Toure I heard a million times and I could have sworn there's some stuff in there last night I heard for the first time. Not even on my HRT or more expensive headphones. Not going to over-analyze one single sound, but I was surprised. It's funny trying to find small thing you've never heard before in tracks you've memorized.
 
Testing the DJ100 again with no amp and just from the Clip. Sounds good, but the bass is a bit more sloppy than normal. Still not too bad. A little more fatiguing sound than normal, but nothing too bad. Sound clarity seems to go up when well amped.
 
NOTE: downloaded that song and will test it out later. Thanks.
 
Apr 28, 2012 at 2:41 PM Post #403 of 2,344
I tested my TB's (and Sony MDR-ZX700, Shure SRH-440 & 880) with my iPhone 4--unamped.  They sounded great, but required that I push them to 80% to 85% for moderately loud listening.  I have some questions how they would perform (be loud enough or not) in a noisy environment.  The other three were just enough easier to push that I did not have such doubts, except to a small degree for the 840.
 
Apr 28, 2012 at 2:45 PM Post #404 of 2,344
 
Quote:
fieldz said:
Buying the DJ100 soon, from this, would I be better keeping my iPhone 3GS with 8GB and getting a Fiio E5/6 with and LOD ($30) or a Sansa Clip+ with 2GB and getting a cheap 16GB upgrade ($35). Just wondering which would be a better foot forward for these phones. Obviously I would get more space with the Sansa clip+, but would I get better power from the amp? I know you have already said a lot about amp setups with these phones, just asking a more specific question.
Click to expand...

 

Sorry for the late reply, but I'd suggest trying the Iphone with an E5. Get a LOD cable too and compare the difference in sound between LOD cable and using the headphone jack to E5. I actually prefer my E5 to Ipod Touch without the LOD cable. Don't know why, but I guess it's just due to more power improving the sound or something?
 
I find my Sansa Clip+ more neutral sounding than my Ipod Touch 2G, but not sure about the Iphone. The Clip has no Line out obviously, but sounds good with just a mini to mini cable. I prefer the Clip to my Sansa Fuze even despite the Fuze having a line out. Measurements for the Fuze and Clip are apparently the same. Doesn't seem that way to me, but similar.
 
I'm not a fan of using the DJ100 with the Fuze LOD cable to amps. For me it's OK with the Total Airhead, E9 and Micro Amp only to my ears. Don't know why.
 
Iphone itself can probably drive the DJ100 and sound decent, but E5 will improve it even further, but maybe not with the LOD cable since you're bypassing the internal amp.
 
Kind nice about how with the Clip you can pretty much have unlimited storage. Got my Clip on sale for $30 I think.
 
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