[J The Killer]

How would the dual AK4375A DAC of ES100 compete with single AK4376A DAC of Fiio BTR3?
Also, BTR3 is expected to be $30 cheaper than ES100..

 

[shrimants]

How would the dual AK4375A DAC of ES100 compete with single AK4376A DAC of Fiio BTR3?
Also, BTR3 is expected to be $30 cheaper than ES100..

Check product spec sheet, there will likely be little to no difference except some pin layout or form factor stuff.

Also for cables I went with noble audio. They ship from US which was important to me, and they are incredibly well built. Bought one balanced and one mic remote cable. Wasn't sure if I'd be going wired or wireless. Only down side is no customizable length. I'd love a 1 or 2 foot balanced cable.

 

[capnjack]

Check product spec sheet, there will likely be little to no difference except some pin layout or form factor stuff.

Also for cables I went with noble audio. They ship from US which was important to me, and they are incredibly well built. Bought one balanced and one mic remote cable. Wasn't sure if I'd be going wired or wireless. Only down side is no customizable length. I'd love a 1 or 2 foot balanced cable.

Try the VEClan website in the basic cable section, you should find a choice or 2 there.

 

[Lurk650]

Check product spec sheet, there will likely be little to no difference except some pin layout or form factor stuff.

Also for cables I went with noble audio. They ship from US which was important to me, and they are incredibly well built. Bought one balanced and one mic remote cable. Wasn't sure if I'd be going wired or wireless. Only down side is no customizable length. I'd love a 1 or 2 foot balanced cable.

Triton Audio Cables, he is a member on here. @alpha421

 

[shrimants]

its just freaking wire.

 

[Lurk650]

its just freaking wire.

Some cheaper cables tend to yellow or they fall apart. I have a few solid ones that are cheap. Then there is the other issue of if there is a problem and its a cable you spent a bit of money on how can you get it repaired, that's why I like David @ Triton. He has been solid at customer service and getting things repaired as needed. Turn around is no more than 7 days. I would never spend over $200 on a cable because indeed it is just wire, but I'm willing to pay ~$100 for a solid quality cable.

Back on discussion, going to put my Shanling M3s up for sale, got it (used) a few months ago. The ES100 has pretty much made it obsolete for me now

 

[shrimants]

i paid 80 for a remote cable and even that was a stretch. 30 for a balanced cable. depending on the connectors and craftsmanship (lets assume 30 bucks for just high quality connectors right off the bat) and maybe 10-15 bucks worth of wire (assuming multi-strand), and maybe double the price to make up for shipping/overhead/profit. thats about 80-100 bucks.

keep in mind my IEMs are like 300 bucks, so im really hesitant spending a third again the cost on just the stupid wire. heck, the iems i bought arent even in a metal shell.

 

[SubMash]

Connectors quality, wire resistance and look - that's all that matters. Cost of good gold plated connectors for retail volumes is few bucks. Cable another few. Anyone charging 100$ for a headphone cable is making above 1000% profit or he is an idiot. Yeah and there are weird wires that do nothing useful, look ugly and can cost anything.

Why nobody asking total cable resistance? It's actually important below 15Ohm impedance headphones.

P.S. If it's not custom made cable you need to multiple cost 5 times to get reasonable retail price. But in such case it's mass production and all components and labor is 2-3x cheaper.

 

[shrimants]

Connectors quality, wire resistance and look - that's all that matters. Cost of good gold plated connectors for retail volumes is few bucks. Cable another few. Anyone charging 100$ for a headphone cable is making above 1000% profit or he is an idiot. Yeah and there are weird wires that do nothing useful, look ugly and can cost anything.

Why nobody asking total cable resistance? It's actually important below 15Ohm impedance headphones.

i tried finding DIY parts but just for the 2-pin 0.78mm connectors it was practically impossible to find. when i did find it, it was 10 bucks for that part alone. very unfortunate, as im fully capable of building a very nice cable but have pretty much no access to reasonably priced parts.

also, fwiw, i have yet to find a single mic/remote module that i can DIY with.

 

[Lunar Eclipse]

Should this cable be released in a darker colour to mitigate the kz cable greening, I'll eventually order one to give the ES balanced output a try. thank you @wslee and team for the latest fw/app update!

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...l?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.16.4f553ddfNmOiec

 

[SubMash]

i tried finding DIY parts but just for the 2-pin 0.78mm connectors it was practically impossible to find. when i did find it, it was 10 bucks for that part alone. very unfortunate, as im fully capable of building a very nice cable but have pretty much no access to reasonably priced parts.

also, fwiw, i have yet to find a single mic/remote module that i can DIY with.

Aliexpress?

 

[antdroid]

i tried finding DIY parts but just for the 2-pin 0.78mm connectors it was practically impossible to find. when i did find it, it was 10 bucks for that part alone. very unfortunate, as im fully capable of building a very nice cable but have pretty much no access to reasonably priced parts.

also, fwiw, i have yet to find a single mic/remote module that i can DIY with.

You can get a set of them on aliexpress for a few bucks. That’s where I buy my 2pin connectors... last I paid was I think $12 for four pairs

 

[shrimants]

You can get a set of them on aliexpress for a few bucks. That’s where I buy my 2pin connectors... last I paid was I think $12 for four pairs

i wasnt finding any that seemed terribly well built or pretty. also i nixed the idea because i didnt want to buy a giant spool of wire just to build 1 or 2 cables lol.

if i do find a mic/remote module thats DIY friendly i'll totally give it a shot though.

 

[antdroid]

i wasnt finding any that seemed terribly well built or pretty. also i nixed the idea because i didnt want to buy a giant spool of wire just to build 1 or 2 cables lol.

if i do find a mic/remote module thats DIY friendly i'll totally give it a shot though.

I use these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Are...622.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.3da24c4dNegHdn

They work just fine for me. They are pretty much the same connectors I see a lot of other customs use as well...

I bought those + any of the pre-fabricated DIY braided cables with ready to solder cables + 2.5mm TRSS connector = $8-10 for a custom cable. Takes 10 mins to solder and put together.

 

[Lurk650]

Checked and my LDAC was set to adaptive. Tested Optimized for Quality (990/909 kbps) and sure enough it can't play it at all. Dropped for Optimized for Quality and Connection (660/606 kbps) and it's playing smoothly. Don't notice a difference from Adaptive but eh. Haven't tested to see if it sticks or not or if I have to set everytime. Either way it's ok.

On that note, my M3s is now up for sale. Very similar sound thanks to the Dual AK Chips but the ES100 gets more use.