[monsieurfromag3]

Just got the balanced cable for my new ES100. It has arrived extremely fast from Penon Audio

What will you plug on the other end of that beauty?

 

[KierD]

Absolutely loving my ES100 - running it with SE846 and Brainwavz balanced cable, either over AAC from my iPhone X or over USB from my iMac.

A little anecdote - a friend of mine came over with his SE425 and I did a blind (literally) test on him - once with the SE425 connected directly to his phone, once with them connected to ES100, and he asked what the second IEMs were because they sounded so distinctly better. He was shocked to discover they were his same old SE425s, and placed an order for ES100 there and then

Seeing as @wslee is a regular contributor, I've a couple of suggestions / wishlist type of things...

1. Ambient mode is great, and the ambient shortcut key is an excellent idea, but quite often i need a more immediate response than I can get with the 2-second button press. Might it be possible in a future firmware version to make all the hardware buttons software configurable? For example, I very rarely use the [<<] button to skip back to the previous track - it would be great to be able to configure that as an instant toggle for ambient sound on/off
2. I totally get the notion that the volume increments provided by iOS are insufficiently granular for ES100 to use a synced volume control in place of anything else, but is it not possible to allow the phone's hardware volume buttons to set the volume to one of its increments, but still be able to fine-tune in the app or with the ES100 hardware buttons? (Perhaps that's not possible through Apple's APIs - just asking though)

 

[flinkenick]

Hi! Swedish guy here
Can you ask your colleague what IEMs he let me try? Im reffering to your custom molded ones. They were on another level! And what DAP was that?
Hope you will enoy the ES100 as much as we are!

Just want to give a quick shout out to @Adventure and the guys at Hifisolutions. Wonderful store and people working there. Great products in stock and for testing. Super friendly and helpful!
Best hifi store-visit for me by far!

Hey Swedish guy! It was my setup, the A&K SP1000 Cu connected to Rhapsodio 2.98 cable and Empire Ears Phantom.

I'm not Rick's colleague, but am becoming part of the furniture these days as I go over regularly to try out new stuff.

 

[rxe16144]

Windows 10 natively supports Apt-X although it might be difficult to know it exactly when you connect via bluetooth.

I tried to connect ES100 to windows10 laptop via bluetooth and during connecting could see on smartphone's App like the attached image. It showed apt-X for input source.
Does this mean ES100 have dual bluetooth function ?

 

[niron]

What will you plug on the other end of that beauty?

A few options including the Pinnacle P1, Tin Audio T2, Fiio FH5, etc.

 

[Monstieur]

@wslee Can you add an Equal Loudness Compensation function similar to the Loudness correction filter in Equalizer APO (https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/)? You can make use of the recently added Output Level Estimation feature to calculate the reference level as 85 dB SPL of -20 dBFS pink noise.

Also, can you add a toggle to show Output Level Estimation relative to reference level like an AV receiver? i.e. 0.0 dB is 85 dB SPL of -20 dBFP pink noise.

 

[JoshG1217]

you got ldac working on android nougat just due to the firmware update?

The previous update contained the LDAC upgrade for the ES100. I have Oreo on my V30, so it already has LDAC. Once I figured out the correct timing to hold the power button down and instantly plug into the computer, windows recognized the adapter, and I ran the firmware update without an issue. It sounds even better than it previously did. I just tested it again against a Sony pair of WH 1000x mk2, and my Beyers sound just tons better.

 

[SubMash]

The previous update contained the LDAC upgrade for the ES100. I have Oreo on my V30, so it already has LDAC. Once I figured out the correct timing to hold the power button down and instantly plug into the computer, windows recognized the adapter, and I ran the firmware update without an issue. It sounds even better than it previously did. I just tested it again against a Sony pair of WH 1000x mk2, and my Beyers sound just tons better.

With all respect to Sony for product details - WH100xmk2 is very average sounding headset which can't even properly hold bass. Any Beyer should be killing it.
And btw - no need for any timing during update - press power button and hold it and while holding it - plug usb in.

 

[Adventure]

Hi! Swedish guy here
Can you ask your colleague what IEMs he let me try? Im reffering to your custom molded ones. They were on another level! And what DAP was that?
Hope you will enoy the ES100 as much as we are!

Just want to give a quick shout out to @Adventure and the guys at Hifisolutions. Wonderful store and people working there. Great products in stock and for testing. Super friendly and helpful!
Best hifi store-visit for me by far!

Thanks for the kind words to start with.

You heard @flinkenick set: Nic's set ... custom IEM Empire Ears - Phantom, the DAP was the Astell & Kern SP1000 Copper!

 

[waynes world]

For those people a few pages back saying they wanted a metal unit instead of plastic, you might want to take a look at the Ampio VS-1880. It's just a straight up receiver/DAC and doesn't have an app or anything and is only 3.5mm but it's a great sounding device with aptX HD and LDAC. You can check out my review of it here: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/review/20615/

As for the ES100, mine just arrived today so I'll be able to test it when I get home tonight. Am looking forward to it after hearing all the praise it has received.

I like the "on/off switch" on the Ampio. Looking forward to your impressions of the ES100. Are there any negatives to having a switch like that? It seems like it would be a faster/simpler method, and if there are no negatives, then I hope that @wslee considers replacing the on/off button (that has to be held down) with a switch in future models.

 

[JoshG1217]

With all respect to Sony for product details - WH100xmk2 is very average sounding headset which can't even properly hold bass. Any Beyer should be killing it.
And btw - no need for any timing during update - press power button and hold it and while holding it - plug usb in.

You know, customer service said, but I tried it like 10 times and the only time I got it to work was press button and instantly plug in. If you wait on a 3 Count or something, then it do any work.

I agree on the Sony. They sound decent (better than Bose, V Moda, and many others), but just not quite there. I have DT 1770s with a1 foot mini xlr cable going to my ES 100. Looking for to upgrade that to a balanced cable with right angle 2.5 jack. Not sure where to get one . Maybe custom cans...

 

[Elzizo]

You know, customer service said, but I tried it like 10 times and the only time I got it to work was press button and instantly plug in. If you wait on a 3 Count or something, then it do any work.

I agree on the Sony. They sound decent (better than Bose, V Moda, and many others), but just not quite there. I have DT 1770s with a1 foot mini xlr cable going to my ES 100. Looking for to upgrade that to a balanced cable with right angle 2.5 jack. Not sure where to get one . Maybe custom cans...

Getting a balanced cable for your DT1770 won't be possible unless you modded your DT1770 from a single ended mini-XLR that has both the left and right channels contained, and change to a headphone out that separates out the left and right channels as well as their ground cable. These mods can be costly and will void your warranty. This is the same situation with many AKG and other Beyerdynamic headphones.

 

[JoshG1217]

So I would need to mod the internal wiring? Are some headphones made that are already balanced, or is it always a mod?

 

[Elzizo]

So I would need to mod the internal wiring? Are some headphones made that are already balanced, or is it always a mod?

You're correct you would need to mod the internal wiring. The DT1990 have the same challenge. The only headphones in that price range that I know from Beyerdynamic that can support a balanced output without modification are the Beyerdynamic Amiron Home, but these are open back. I do not know of a closed back headphone from Beyerdynamic that supports balanced out without modification.

 

[SubMash]

Sennheiser is better from that perspective - balanced by design.