[KenW]

Thanks vr and rab. Feelin' a bit better about it now. Cheers!

 

[jamato8]

The new contacts work fine, as does the SM. This is one great amp!'

John

 

[uncle b]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwirugby erikzen, I'm using the Powerex 800mAH NiMH rechargeables from Thomas Distributing. With my Macro (4 switches version), I'm at about 23 hours and still going strong. jester, I was listening to my SuperDual yesterday, and compared with my Macro, I would say with the bass boost the SuperDual has more bass slam and richness in lower frequencies than the Macro with bass boost (using an AKG 501 and DT880). Now, my Macro has to go back to Xin in order for him to increase the bass boost from 6db to 10db (I don't know what is the bass boost on the SD) and the comparative difference may well change.. However, when you compare midrange and upper frequencies, the Macro is much cleaner and more crsip than the SD, in my opinion, especially with piano and some percussive instruments such as the triangle and cymbals. I was thinking of selling my SD, but now I'm not so sure! They both sound amazing for their sizes.

I'm also using a set of eight just-purchased PowerEx 800mAH AAA batteries from Thomas Distributing, I'm looking forward to many charge/discharge cycles with them.

 

[erikzen]

I decided to go with the Ansman 900 mAH, only because the Accupower 1000 mAH are out of stock.

 

[Gregor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikzen I decided to go with the Ansman 900 mAH, only because the Accupower 1000 mAH are out of stock.

I called Thomas Dist Friday and they said the Accupower 1000mAH are expected Tuesday

 

[Zoide]

Today I bought 8 AAA 850mAh rechargeables for just $8 at Fry's

They were on discount...

Then again, the brand is "Lenmar", which I guess isn't the fanciest out there, but whatever...

 

[Gregor]

BTW: My SuperMacro arrived today. I ordered on Nov 15th. I did't recieve any email notifications.

Per the serial number it has the 10db bass boost. With my HD580s its barely noticible. At least to my ears. But then I'm fond of the heavy (abiet muddy) bass from my Portapros.

The crossfeed sounds bad, distroying the seperation. It sounds like a stereo/mono switch.

I haven't quite figured out the impedence switch. It seems to trim the highs somewhat which sounds better for some music. Since the HD580s are already 120 ohms, I'm guessing that it should be set to off.

Its my first and only headphone amp, so I'm afraid I cannot compare it anything but my preamp, and the headphone out on my laptop and DAP. Frankly there is no comparison. The difference is huge. More of everything! Its been running for only 2 hours and understand it's bound to get better. As soon as I get complacent with the sound I'll drop in the 627s.

 

[goto2003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregor BTW: Per the serial number it has the 10db bass boost. With my HD580s its barely noticible. At least to my ears. But then I'm fond of the heavy (abiet muddy) bass from my Portapros. .

FYI, the bass boost is less than 10DB, yet above 6DB. Xin mentioned it in his website. I guess 10DB will be too much to Xin's taste and most people's (My guess).

 

[Zoide]

Gregor: I'm glad you like the amp overall

With respect to the crossfeed, I actually thought that it's one of the SM's coolest features. The one that comes with Foobar is too subtle for me, and the SM's just sounds much more effective. It's not meant to be used with all your music, but more exclusively for situations when the music has extreme, annoying stereo separation (think some Beatles songs where you have a piano completely on a right side, and the vocals completely on the left side, etc).

With respect to the impedance switch, I think it's mostly for people with the Etymotics 4P canalphone who want it to act like a 4S.

 

[Gregor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoide It's not meant to be used with all your music, but more exclusively for situations when the music has extreme, annoying stereo separation (think some Beatles songs where you have a piano completely on a right side, and the vocals completely on the left side, etc).

Thanks for the info. I was expecting something the SRS surround in WMP or the iRiver. Its nothing like that. I tried Xin's sample sound to demonstrate the crossfeed and its working as advertized. I can see that it would be a big help for the extreem seperation recordings, of which I have none.

 

[Zoide]

Yes, in fact I think you could say the effect of crossfeed is meant to be the opposite of a surround enhancement. It's more like a stereo tamer, bringing the instruments of certain recordings within non-annoying, realistic boundaries.

 

[aki]

Also think of it as a speaker soundstage (sitting in front of speakers). I use it with a great deal of music, not just old recordings with extreme stereo seperation. Just coz i prefer listening in front of speakers, and that's the soundstage i go for. It's also kickass for jazz recordings, close your eyes, and picture the band on the stage in front of you.

I noticed people omit their musical preferences alot in their review of gear... and its really quite important. Crossfeed is fairly moot for electronic or dance music for example, where its all about an immersive sound thats just 'everywhere', if you know what i mean. And yes, modern rock recordings probably don't need it as much either because they're nicely mixed. But even then, they're almost always mixed with monitor speakers, so the sound is still really designed for speakers.

 

[bhd812]

wow the drama is back!

lol

 

[Jester]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vranswer Well, I've had three Xin products now (SuperDual, SuperMono & updated SuperMacro), and none of them have had any issues with build quality. If you follow fixup.net's support forum, you get a good sense of Xin's commitment to service - straight up, he fixes what's wrong usually pretty quickly. Don't mean to sound like fanboy, I just continue to be impressed with his designs and service.

My SuperDual had issues with one of the channels not working properly. Xin fixed it straight away without any hassel. The man stands behind his products and provides quality customer service, just as vranswer mentioned above.

 

[MikeB06]

I just placed my order for a Supermacro, with the extra switches and installed dual-AD8610 op-amps. Now that my Go-Vibe is sold, I cannot wait for this amp to arrive. I went with the AD8610's because I had the AD8620 in my Go-Vibe and loved it, and felt the extra battery drain of the OPA667 was not worth the extra $$ and different sound. All I have to use with the Supermacro now is my Zen Xtra and my Dell laptop, both from headphone outs. I'm likely getting a iRiver H140 for Xmas and a Xitel Pro Hi-Fi-Link Audio Processor in order to use a line-out for the amp. I can't wait for the Supermacro and the opportunity to use it with line-outs rather than the headphone outs I've been using with my Go-Vibe.