[Lifted Andreas]

@wslee

What is the return policy for the device, in particular if ordered from Amazon? Is there a return policy?

Thanks

AFAIK Amazon have a month return available from the date of you receiving the item (at least in UK).

Awesome WS! Thanks.

Btw, I PROMISE not to go skiing (and wipe out) in deep powder with the es100 clipped onto to me like I did with the btr1!

Maybe it was the music you were listening to that made you wipe out xD

 

[waynes world]

Maybe it was the music you were listening to that made you wipe out xD

Listening to that Lifted Andreas trance seemed like a good idea at the time!

 

[zolom]

Is the DAC oversampling (other than 1x) relevant to BT APTX HD? Or is it just for using the ES100 as USB DAC?
Please explain.

Thanks

 

[Lifted Andreas]

Listening to that Lifted Andreas trance seemed like a good idea at the time!

Aww I'm sorry, with those uplifting sounds who can blame ya if you start feeling like you can fly.

PS. On a serious note, hope you been well mate.

 

[antdroid]

@wslee, I lost my fiio btr1. So instead of simply kinda wanting the es100, I now NEED IT lol. So I'm looking forward to it being sold in Canada

How convenient. I want to lose mine too so I have a good excuse to my SO this purchase is justified.

 

[waynes world]

How convenient. I want to lose mine too so I have a good excuse to my SO this purchase is justified.

LOL. The ES100 Gods made me do it. When it happened, I was pretty annoyed at my foolishness. But I then looked at the "ES100 bright side", which has helped to cheer me back up a bit.

Btw WS, if it's a possibility, please try to be nice with the amazon.ca pricing, as the US to CAD exchange rate is not very pleasant

 

[hongky]

Update: Got my balanced cable, and am very happy so far.
Source: Apple 7, Apple music
Headphones: CA Andromedas
Current settings:
HD Jitter Cleaner: on
Using balanced connection, 1x voltage
No equalizer
DCT off
Digital filter on Short Delay Slow Roll-Off
Over sampling 2x

How Andromeda sound with es100 ?

 

[kolbo]

How Andromeda sound with es100 ?

Pretty good. I had to play with things a bit. Much better on balanced than single ended.
I do have to set the analog volume pretty low. I’m experimenting with setting preamp in eq to -12 and increasing the analog volume. Not sure yet if I like it better or not.
What else do you want to know?

 

[antdroid]

LOL. The ES100 Gods made me do it. When it happened, I was pretty annoyed at my foolishness. But I then looked at the "ES100 bright side", which has helped to cheer me back up a bit.

Btw WS, if it's a possibility, please try to be nice with the amazon.ca pricing, as the US to CAD exchange rate is not very pleasant

I just ordered one. I'll ask for forgiveness later. She took my BTR1 so that's an excuse right?

 

[wslee]

Pretty good. I had to play with things a bit. Much better on balanced than single ended.
I do have to set the analog volume pretty low. I’m experimenting with setting preamp in eq to -12 and increasing the analog volume. Not sure yet if I like it better or not.
What else do you want to know?

@kolbo:
I don't think it's a good idea to increase the analog volume.
Keeping both the digital volume and the preamp at 0dB would give you the best performance.
WS

 

[wslee]

Thank you for the explanation! It's a bummer that AKM quoted you a spec that is poorer than the actual performance. Glad you measured it!

Indeed I'm planning to use the ES100 to drive multi-BA IEMs, which are very sensitive to source impedance. The Massdrop Plus IEM gets bassy and loose with source impedance > 1 ohm. It's not so much an issue of THD+N but rather frequency response shifts.

@Soaa:

As you know,
High sensitivity means that the unit can deliver much more acoustic loudness with lower electrical power.
High sensitivity can be achieved by using very light-weighted and robust diaphragm and strong permanent magnet,
so that lower electric power to the coil can generate wider physical movement eventually.

Just like a light-weighted vehicle, the most advantage of high sensitivity unit is efficiency.
It consumes less electrical power and fits for the most portable use case, in case of the same unit impedance assumed.

Due to the limited output power and battery life of many smartphones,
it seems that many makers started to release the high sensitivity IEMs.

For example,
with an AMP output power 10mWatt and the same unit impedance,
A 16-Ohm IEM with sensitivity 80dB SPL/mW provides just 90dB SPL, which is not enough,
while a 16-ohm IEM with 120dB SPL delivers 130dB SPL, which is too loud.

The blind spot is that 130dB SPL is too loud.
Eventually, you always need to get the volume down at some lower level for a high sensitivity unit.

In digital volume control,
as you lower the volume down, you will get less bit resolution, eventually getting poor sound quality.

Also, system noise floor is critical to high sensitivity IEM,
because small electrical noise can make the diaphragm moving.

In summary, IMHO,
the analog volume control is more critical to high sensitivity IEMs,
than the output impedance, maximum output power, and THD+N specification of an amplifier.

With analog volume control,
you can get the volume down without dropping any bit resolution,
while having the noise floor move down following the volume level.

ES100 may not be able to give you enough sound quality that you expected.
But please keep the above in your mind when you make a choice on any amplifier for your IEMs.

Thanks and Regards,
WS

 

[wslee]

Awesome WS! Thanks.

Btw, I PROMISE not to go skiing (and wipe out) in deep powder with the es100 clipped onto to me like I did with the btr1!

@waynes world:
Just launched in Canada.
WS

 

[m4rkw]

Hi, where can we get short balanced MMCX cables for the EarStudio?

 

[wslee]

Regarding the above, I could not find any Bit-Perfect settings in the Tidal android app.
A way to set Bit-Perfect for Tidal (HiFi, HiRez) is by using Tidal via the UAPP application, there set it to Bit-Perfect. I Guess Bit-Perfect then only applies to real USB Audio connectivity to an external DAC, while it cannot be fulfilled with BT.

@zolom:

DAC oversampling option defines D/A conversion characteristic.
Both BT and USB digital stream need to be converted to the analog signal through DAC.
So, it affects both of them.

Technically, D/A conversion at higher sample rate would definitely perform better,
only in case the DAC increases the internal operating clock along with the sample rate.

I used to design DAC, PWM before,
but it's not possible to get that information from every DACs because it's a design secret.

That's why I mentioned it as characteristic.

Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous posting,

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/radsone-earstudio.867366/page-12#post-14033287

it depends on.

Just try it and set what you prefer.

Thanks and Regards,
WS

 

[antdroid]

Hi, where can we get short balanced MMCX cables for the EarStudio?

Fiio makes one or you can find some on AliExpress. I just ordered a short 2-pin for my iSine and Noble Xs on Ali express.