[JustinTraub]

Hello everybody, I'm a new audiophile (if that means a person who really loves music just the way it is, not distorted, etc)! I was considering the UE 5 Pros, but then I decided if I were to be serious then why not go for the best and not upgrade, eh? So I'm thinking of buying the UE 18 Pros now, but I have a question. I have a Sony Xperia Play as a MP3 player/phone, and will that be suitable for the UE 18 Pros? Will it be a big bottleneck? And what are these amps that you guys are talking about? haha. Last but not least, where can I get completely uncompressed music?
 
Thanks a lot!
 
PS: Money actually is an issue, and so is space, so if I were to decide on getting a portable amp/new MP3 player, please keep the cost in mind!

 

[LegendaryLvl1]

I've gotta come up with a word for all these 1st posters that ask for help.

Ever heard of google mate? Half your questions can be answered there.

Also, there is a thread DEDICATED to these types of requests. But of course you would just ignore it out of your own self interest like all these other 1st posters. What makes you so special?

 

[JustinTraub]

Ouch, a bit harsh, don't you think?
I'm sorry that I didn't see the thread dedicated to these questions, I'm sorry I didn't see the thread dedicated to idiots like me. And yes, I've heard of Google, however I just thought that it would be nice to have answers for my exact question, and not some variation of it. Ever think to yourself that maybe I've searched on Google for some of the answers, but never got it? For example, maybe Google doesn't tell me whether or not the Xperia Play will bottleneck. Just maybe.
 
Oh, you want to help me out? Link me to the thread "DEDICATED to these types of requests". If you don't want to help, please don't respond anymore. Thanks, mate.

 

[LegendaryLvl1]

Quote:

Ouch, a bit harsh, don't you think?
I'm sorry that I didn't see the thread dedicated to these questions, I'm sorry I didn't see the thread dedicated to idiots like me. And yes, I've heard of Google, however I just thought that it would be nice to have answers for my exact question, and not some variation of it. Ever think to yourself that maybe I've searched on Google for some of the answers, but never got it? For example, maybe Google doesn't tell me whether or not the Xperia Play will bottleneck. Just maybe.
 
Oh, you want to help me out? Link me to the thread "DEDICATED to these types of requests". If you don't want to help, please don't respond anymore. Thanks, mate.

See this is the problem. You didn't see it. Like all the other first posters out there who 'didn't see it'. For the past month, we've had all these people like you who 'didn't see it' clogging up the front page of the headphones thread, as well as the portable headphones thread.
 
"however I just thought that it would be nice to have answers for my exact question, and not some variation of it"
 
This is a luxury that you believe you deserve, on what grounds? What about all the other people who have the diligence to do their own research? Again, do you think you're special?
 
Oh, you want to help me out? Link me to the thread "DEDICATED to these types of requests". If you don't want to help, please don't respond anymore. Thanks, mate.
 
The tenacity of your second post is astounding. If I don't want to help then I can't give my opinion? The last time I checked, I'm pretty sure that the internet heralded free speech. 
 
Ever think to yourself that maybe I've searched on Google for some of the answers, but never got it?
>
>
>"Last but not least, where can I get completely uncompressed music?"
 
Oh. You must be using a different Google search to me, because the last time I typed in 'where can I get uncompressed music' a lot of sites came up. But then again, of course, the Google you're using must be vastly different to my own.
 
And again:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/557996/iems-portables-advice-don-t-start-a-new-thread-ask-for-help-here
 
Also, you must have 'missed' the Useful Links section
" A Hopefully Helpful Headphone Buying Guide For Newbies By Boomana"
 
Navigating this forum

1.Read before posting. Research before posting. Use the search function before posting. There are answers to almost every question you have and ones you didn’t know you had buried everywhere in this forum. Please do a little research before asking, “What’s the best headphone for $100?” There are already 900 threads answering questions about good headphones for bass, and gaming, and jazz, and trance, and classical, and there was even a not surprisingly lengthy thread about what headphones for were good for dirty movies. Think about your purpose, what type of music you like, your budget and what you want in a rig, and start reading. Then, if you’re ready for some personalized attention and want to start a thread, you’ll have a frame of reference by which to ask questions and judge responses. More experienced members will also be more inclined to be helpful if it’s obvious that you’ve done a little reading.
 
is this enough help?

 

[Ishcabible]

Just here to chime in: Jesus, if I was greeted in this manner when I joined Head-Fi, I probably wouldn't have stayed. Sure, I did my research before joining, and never started a thread for help, but the forums are pretty daunting for newcomers. It took me a good two weeks before I knew how a forum like watchuseek even worked to find exactly what I was looking for (and got a nice Seiko Monster from reading).

If it really was THAT much of a burden to the modding squad to see an influx of threads asking for help, the threads would be locked and moved to the dedicated thread. But the thing about that thread is that not all questions are answered. I've asked a few rather specific questions in the full-sized headphone thread (this seems to be rather specific too. I can only assume very few people have had experience with both the Xperia Play and the UE18's), and they weren't answered, most likely because very few experienced people actually take the time to wade through the thread, which is getting too large for me to follow and answer questions on a regular basis. I mean, I might have a slightly different tone if the OP was asking for bassy headphones for under $100, since there are like 3 theads of those on the front page on any given day, but the OP has a rather uncommon question. Sure, searching would have made things easier, but hey, he's thinking of buying a pair of $1400 customs as his first set. That's not very common. Maybe I'm insane, but a new thread for this isn't exactly a mortal sin because with a new thread, he can be swayed to something cheaper by fellow members because he may not be able to tell the difference instead of UE18 fans just telling him to buy them now.

Plus, how hard is it really to just scroll past a help thread and click on page 2, rather than take the time to respond to the OP, saying what s/he would have done if they had any idea what they were doing and be thought as arrogant, which is actually pretty far from the truth for most people that complain? Sure, there are a ton of newbies making new threads, but I like it. More people are getting into the hobby. If we keep being nice to them and answer their questions, they'll get their friends interested, and so on. With a larger consumer base, companies can keep making better and better stuff for cheap that we can recommend. I could certainly do without all the Beats threads though. Those are actually more a waste of bandwidth than anything.

And I'm not necessarily calling legendary out at all, it's just that being unfriendly to new members is an easy way to, well, lose members fast. I read a rant on facebook that was...entertaining to say the least...

Anyways, ime, the Play isn't a great source, but not terrible. Amps are for giving headphones more power. It's kinda like putting premium fuel in a car vs regular fuel, to give a crude example. You get extra performance. And...yeah google lossless music sites for stuff. My phone doesn't post links.

 

[tinyman392]

I agree with the above post, that was a really harsh welcome...  Hopefully Justin here isn't turned off from Head-Fi.  It took me a week to get used to a new forum layout as well (I've been on other forums).
 
Quote:

Hello everybody, I'm a new audiophile (if that means a person who really loves music just the way it is, not distorted, etc)! I was considering the UE 5 Pros, but then I decided if I were to be serious then why not go for the best and not upgrade, eh? So I'm thinking of buying the UE 18 Pros now, but I have a question. I have a Sony Xperia Play as a MP3 player/phone, and will that be suitable for the UE 18 Pros? Will it be a big bottleneck? And what are these amps that you guys are talking about? haha. Last but not least, where can I get completely uncompressed music?
 
Thanks a lot!
 
PS: Money actually is an issue, and so is space, so if I were to decide on getting a portable amp/new MP3 player, please keep the cost in mind!

Let me first welcome you to these forums, not everyone is like that (look above).  Most of us are really nice people willing to help   Also, congrats on purchasing the UE 18s (I wish I could afford any custom right now )
 
Your phone should be able to decently drive the UE 18 Pros, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.  Headphone amps allow you to put more power through a pair of headphones to let them open up.  It in turn increases quality all around.
 
As said above, look up lossless if you want completely uncompressed music. 
 

 

[Ishcabible]

Huddler's the devil. Normally I would be able to SPACE OUT paragraphs on my phone. Not with Huddler.

LegendaryLv11 is probably having a bad day. He's usually pretty cool.

And I get where you're coming from. The UE18 would be a huge upgrade from iBuds, but the difference between, say, a Unique Melody Mage and the UE18 will be much less drastic. Diminishing returns kicks in pretty fast in the portable world. Once you get past the $150 mark, differences are mostly about taste. Sure, there's some extra resolution in megabuck customs, but most newbies won't be able to easily tell if given a $500 custom and a $1400 custom. I say read more about other customs like Unique Melody, ACS, Westone, etc and maybe get an amp if you want to. Most amps SHOULD sound pretty similar (with the obvious slight sound signature they all inherently have due to capacitors and such) since their primary goal is to just provide extra power. A premade Mini3 would get you pretty far. It would help a lot if you listed your music choices and budget too, which seems to be like $1500?

Now, my main beef with using phones as sources is the signal interference you get when anything incoming, well, comes to the phone. The beep gets annoying. Not too sure if this affects CDMA phones like the Play though. Regardless, even a Sansa Clip+, found at Best Buy, would be a sound upgrade. Rockbox it, and you have a very capable, if slightly overrated, player for $40 plus micro SD card cost. Alternatively, you could go for the Cowon J3 or wait for the new Sony A series DAPs that will most likely be spectacular.

Oh, and make sure you can tell the difference between lossless and LAME V0 encoded MP3's before you fill up your DAP with lossless. You may be able to save a ton of space if you can't. Honestly, I can tell the difference, but on a portable setup, it's negligible because the differences are drowned out by external noise anyways. Huddler's the devil. Normally I would be able to SPACE OUT paragraphs on my phone. Not with Huddler.

LegendaryLv11 is probably having a bad day. He's usually pretty cool.

And I get where you're coming from. The UE18 would be a huge upgrade from iBuds, but the difference between, say, a Unique Melody Mage and the UE18 will be much less drastic. Diminishing returns kicks in pretty fast in the portable world. Once you get past the $150 mark, differences are mostly about taste. Sure, there's some extra resolution in megabuck customs, but most newbies won't be able to easily tell if given a $500 custom and a $1400 custom. I say read more about other customs like Unique Melody, ACS, Westone, etc and maybe get an amp if you want to. Most amps SHOULD sound pretty similar (with the obvious slight sound signature they all inherently have due to capacitors and such) since their primary goal is to just provide extra power. A premade Mini3 would get you pretty far. It would help a lot if you listed your music choices and budget too, which seems to be like $1500?

Now, my main beef with using phones as sources is the signal interference you get when anything incoming, well, comes to the phone. The beep gets annoying. Not too sure if this affects CDMA phones like the Play though. Regardless, even a Sansa Clip+, found at Best Buy, would be a sound upgrade. Rockbox it, and you have a very capable, if slightly overrated, player for $40 plus micro SD card cost. Alternatively, you could go for the Cowon J3 or wait for the new Sony A series DAPs that will most likely be spectacular.

Oh, and make sure you can tell the difference between lossless and LAME V0 encoded MP3's before you fill up your DAP with lossless. You may be able to save a ton of space if you can't. Honestly, I can tell the difference, but on a portable setup, it's negligible because the differences are drowned out by external noise anyways.

 

[tinyman392]

OK, it makes sense if he's having a cruddy day.  I'm newer to this forum, but I've never seen that before, it really surprised me...  I think some flowers died while I read through it   JK.

 

[davidcotton]

Quote:

Hello everybody, I'm a new audiophile (if that means a person who really loves music just the way it is, not distorted, etc)! I was considering the UE 5 Pros, but then I decided if I were to be serious then why not go for the best and not upgrade, eh? So I'm thinking of buying the UE 18 Pros now, but I have a question. I have a Sony Xperia Play as a MP3 player/phone, and will that be suitable for the UE 18 Pros? Will it be a big bottleneck? And what are these amps that you guys are talking about? haha. Last but not least, where can I get completely uncompressed music?
 
Thanks a lot!
 
PS: Money actually is an issue, and so is space, so if I were to decide on getting a portable amp/new MP3 player, please keep the cost in mind!

Not a lot to add but thats quite a jump from the 5's upward.  Not saying don't do it as I haven't heard any customs myself but if a phone is to be the main source then is it worth it?  Also if money is an issue (and believe me I've seen the headfi effect where a small idea snowballs out of control, theres a reason why the semi official welcome is "welcome to headfi, sorry about your wallet")then would it not be better to back off a bit and get a smaller balanced rig of decent headphones/mp3 player?   One reason why I'd never use a phone as a source is the battery life on it.
 
Anyway good luck with whatever you go with.
 

 

[LegendaryLvl1]

Hmm I can see now that I really was harsh 

 
I think I just reached the tipping point of all my internet-inspired-rage, and blew it all out on Justin D:

Sorry mate, hopefully It won't happen again....for a really long time.
 
I guess the silver lining would be all the awesome responses you got (as a response to my demonic post) 

 
 
 I have a Sony Xperia Play as a MP3 player/phone, and will that be suitable for the UE 18 Pros? Will it be a big bottleneck?
Usually, IEM's are fine to be played through almost any DAP (including phones).
 
These are the specs:
Input Sensitivity: 110.6 dB @ 1 kHz
Efficiency: 115.6 dB @ 1mW
Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 18,000 Hz
Impedance: 21 ohms @ 1kHz
Internal Speaker Configuration: 6 proprietary precision balanced armatures
Noise Isolation: -26 dB
Input Connector: 1/8" (3.5 mm) gold plated
 
The ATH-AD700's have an efficiency of 98 dB/mW at 1 kHz. So while the UE 18's require a bit more drive, it is exactly that: A bit more drive. I would suggest that no amp is needed.
 
 And what are these amps that you guys are talking about
Effectively, a headphone amplifier is a small power amplifier that can be connected to a standard headphone jack or (usually) the line output of an audio source. The headphone amplifier improves the sound quality by increasing the amount of power available to move the transducer, increasing the control that the source has over just where the transducer is in space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headphone_amplifier
 
Also:
http://us.7digital.com/
http://bandcamp.com/
http://magnatune.com/
http://www.qobuz.com/
http://www.rhino.com/
http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/storefront.php
http://zunior.com/
http://www.musiczeit.com/
http://www.linnrecords.com/

 

[JustinTraub]

I'd like to thanks everybody on this thread a lot, especially Legendary for apologizing - quite honestly, I've never seen such a turn-around! Thanks
As Ishcabible said, my budget is around 1500, so there's a bit of room in there for a player. That being said, how big would the sound upgrade be if I got a J3 or the Sony? Oh, and thanks for the explanation on the amp - I found it quite funny!
And DavidCotton - I think I'll get the UE 18s (Since I've already bought them o.o) and a nice player in a month or so when I have the money
Legendary - In that case, I'll skip on the amp, because as you put it, the amp isn't necessary.
 
Thank you guys so much!
 

 

[LegendaryLvl1]

Quote:

I'd like to thanks everybody on this thread a lot, especially Legendary for apologizing - quite honestly, I've never seen such a turn-around! Thanks
As Ishcabible said, my budget is around 1500, so there's a bit of room in there for a player. That being said, how big would the sound upgrade be if I got a J3 or the Sony? Oh, and thanks for the explanation on the amp - I found it quite funny!
And DavidCotton - I think I'll get the UE 18s (Since I've already bought them o.o) and a nice player in a month or so when I have the money
Legendary - In that case, I'll skip on the amp, because as you put it, the amp isn't necessary.
 
Thank you guys so much!
 

Awesome.
 
J3 or the Sony?
No huge difference in SQ, at this point, it's more about user interface preference - as well as customisability issues (e.g. EQ/ Music folder directory etc_
 

 

[ZARIM]

Quote:

I'd like to thanks everybody on this thread a lot, especially Legendary for apologizing - quite honestly, I've never seen such a turn-around! Thanks
As Ishcabible said, my budget is around 1500, so there's a bit of room in there for a player. That being said, how big would the sound upgrade be if I got a J3 or the Sony? Oh, and thanks for the explanation on the amp - I found it quite funny!
And DavidCotton - I think I'll get the UE 18s (Since I've already bought them o.o) and a nice player in a month or so when I have the money
Legendary - In that case, I'll skip on the amp, because as you put it, the amp isn't necessary.
 
Thank you guys so much!
 

I think these custom IEMs JH13Pro/JH16Pro, Westone ES5 and UM Miracle are on same level of UE18 in term of sound quality or better. The MP3 players like Head-Direct Hifiman HM-601, HM-602, Sony X1060( line out), S;Flo 2(has line out) are highely recommended with custom IEMs like UE18 and you can add Amplifier later with these( line out to connect with external AMPs for better sound quality). The uncompressed music can download through online music stores or rip CD and use FLAC or WAVE format.

 

[ArrigoShred]

Hey there!

Personally I've owned a couple of pair of Custom IEMs.

UE18 Pros being one of them.

I own the Westone ES5s the UE 18Pros and finally the JH16Pro

The rig i use for these iems is simple

At home or for long travelling trips its a iPod Classic -> CypherLabs Algorhythm Solo -> ALO RX Mk2

When say im just going out for a hangout and such Its simply iPod Classic -> IEM.

Personally I dont think these IEM's benefit much from being amped and that the iPod Classic is more than enough to power these babies. 

I would say get a iPod Classic so you can have huge file sizes whilst maintaining a relatively good UI.

But for UE18s I don't recommend them. Personally being the third pair of Custom IEMs I own. I find them to be the biggest disappointment, especially considering the fact that the price of the 18Pros are so much higher than the ES5s, which are infact my favorite pair of IEMS.

 

 

[LegendaryLvl1]

Quote:

I think these custom IEMs JH13Pro/JH16Pro, Westone ES5 and UM Miracle are on same level of UE18 in term of sound quality or better. The MP3 players like Head-Direct Hifiman HM-601, HM-602, Sony X1060( line out), S;Flo 2(has line out) are highely recommended with custom IEMs like UE18 and you can add Amplifier later with these( line out to connect with external AMPs for better sound quality). The uncompressed music can download through online music stores or rip CD and use FLAC or WAVE format.

Can you evaluate on this? Is there any significant difference in SQ? - I've recently purchased a pair of Miracles