[Sonic Defender]

Seriously ? There are changes, but it is only preferences to what signature you like rather than improvements or degradations: wider seems more forgiving, bass is with more extensions, longer decay..etc...and the rest does the same. Narrower tighten things up but still carry the energies of each tonal beat is packed, hence leaving more air, better separations, better clarity, sharper trebles body but smooth...etc...vocal comes more foward.

I feel like if I want to analyze things then going for narrower, for better musical experiences = going for wider

I'll try again, but I didn't hear anything change. I'm starting to think either I have under-sensitive hearing, or lack the skills to analyze music, or people really do convince themselves they hear something. Either are perfectly plausible explanations. Now I didn't drag the slider all the way over full narrow, somewhere in-between the normal and narrow points. Still, I heard nothing change at all.

 

[Sonic Defender]

 
Anymore details re what the difference is? Apart from the colour

Kind of curious myself, I suspect it was just late implementation of feedback that the un-coloured etched version didn't stand out. I rather doubt there was any other difference.

 

[issachar1943]

Stock player. The Poweramp alpha was too buggy on the DP-X1, and I don't know what other programs I would like better than it ...

 
I wonder why Poweramp is working perfectly fine on me.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I wonder if the stock player is any different than the Onkyo HD player? I'm assuming based on what I think I understand from this thread, that the Onkyo HD player would not attempt to access any hardware based DAC, rather it would go to the SoC processing on the Snapdragon 801 chip. From what I have read about the Snapdragon CPU, the audio section on the CPU should be quite good. It seems that the audio section on the 801 can be customized by the vendor using the CPU and it is a shame that Onkyo didn't make it that any audio player that was forced to talk to the CPU SoC wasn't at that point allowed to access the hardware DAC fully. Perhaps it is a great deal more complex than I realise.

 

[PrinceOfEgypt]

Guys im in a real quandry and in the process i have given myself a headache...
 
Im trying to determine what IEM's i should get...I have been told that there is no point spending more than $700 because beyond that the gains are not that great.
I have narrowed it down to the following:
 
1. Sony XBA-Z5
2. Stagediver SD4
 
Then i have the following if i ignore the $700 rule
 
1. Fitear 334
2. Shure SE846
3. Kaiser K10u
 
What do you guys think?

 

[gearofwar]

  Guys im in a real quandry and in the process i have given myself a headache...
 
Im trying to determine what IEM's i should get...I have been told that there is no point spending more than $700 because beyond that the gains are not that great.
I have narrowed it down to the following:
 
1. Sony XBA-Z5
2. Stagediver SD4
 
Then i have the following if i ignore the $700 rule
 
1. Fitear 334
2. Shure SE846
3. Kaiser K10u
 
What do you guys think?

K10

 

[Whitigir]

I wonder why Poweramp is working perfectly fine on me.

Do you use it with balanced TRRS ?

 

[Subhakar]

  Guys im in a real quandry and in the process i have given myself a headache...
 
Im trying to determine what IEM's i should get...I have been told that there is no point spending more than $700 because beyond that the gains are not that great.
I have narrowed it down to the following:
 
1. Sony XBA-Z5
2. Stagediver SD4
 
Then i have the following if i ignore the $700 rule
 
1. Fitear 334
2. Shure SE846
3. Kaiser K10u
 
What do you guys think?

 
 
Earsonics Velvets.
($599)

 

[Sonic Defender]

@Whitigir, maybe you can help me with this lock range investigation. So I was just playing going to either end of the range control. At first I thought, oh yah that is what he meant, but the more times I tried the settings, the less confident I felt that I could hear any change. So what I thought ask if you could tell me a test track to use that you can easily detect the differences you hear. I'm hoping you could say something like: in song x from 1:34 seconds in until 1:42 there is a bass line where you can clearly hear the decay shorter with lock range at ....
 
I kept trying a song I know well, Holy Cole One Trick Pony as it starts off with some long slow standup bass string hits that reverberate for fairly long and there are almost a minute worth of these that remain very prominent in the song. Even so at the end of my experiment I couldn't tell if there was any change at all. As I said the first time I went all the way to wide I thought I heard something, but subsequently I just can't tell. Anyway, unless I really have terrible audio memory I have to think the effects are subtle at best, but I could be very wrong. Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

 

[Whitigir]

Are you using balanced TRRS ? Almost every track 16/44.1 will show you the differences, but don't do it knot by knot do it either Wide or Normal or Narrow. You will hear it. Pay attention to vocal first, mid, then bass line. Everything is almost very hard to tell, vocal is easier. Once you realizes what changes within the vocal tonal body, then you will hear the same thing on the bass first, and then everything else afterward.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I am using balanced, ACG, slow filter. Man if that is the case you're actually starting to make me doubt my audio processing capabilities as I can't hear much, or when I thought I heard something it was really subtle, so subtle that I wasn't sure. It would be nice if a few other people could try and chime in. I'm actually serious that it could just be me. Cheers.

 

[gearofwar]

Are you using balanced TRRS ? Almost every track 16/44.1 will show you the differences, but don't do it knot by knot do it either Wide or Normal or Narrow. You will hear it. Pay attention to vocal first, mid, then bass line. Everything is almost very hard to tell, vocal is easier. Once you realizes what changes within the vocal tonal body, then you will hear the same thing on the bass first, and then everything else afterward.

So you have decided to sell Onkyo and keep ZX2.

 

[Whitigir]

I am using balanced, ACG, slow filter. Man if that is the case you're actually starting to make me doubt my audio processing capabilities as I can't hear much, or when I thought I heard something it was really subtle, so subtle that I wasn't sure. It would be nice if a few other people could try and chime in. I'm actually serious that it could just be me. Cheers.

Slow filter and narrow is too foward to observe. Start out with Short and wide, then turn all the way from wide to narrow and you will hear the vocal changes first. When you realizes what changes, then you will be able to proceed to analyze further. Every track with good vocal 16/44.1 will be sufficient. What gears are you using ?

 

[Sonic Defender]

Lossless with the settings I stated and a PM3 with a nucleotide cable from PETEREK, great cable by way. When I went full narrow I experienced playback stutters as Onkyo warning suggested might happen. Perhaps that is due to the slow filter being used in combination?

 

[Whitigir]

So you have decided to sell Onkyo and keep ZX2.

Unfortunately, yes! My preferences and I lean heavily toward modern-pop, classical, and modern-ballads....to hear the variations within string instruments is more important to me than to hear the splashy, detailed trebles and soundstage.