[Cajunky]

I bought this one, http://www.ebay.com/itm/290372905689  Same thing though.  I tried a 75ohm and a 120ohm.  The 120ohm was too much.

I like sparkly highs, but there's just a touch too much on these FA-011's for me.  I can listen to them w/o the adapter, but I prefer not to.

I can't listen to my FA-011 anymore without an impedance adapter. I have bought 3 off ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271187691903

It takes the edge off the highs. My ears are sensitive to excessive (IMO) highs. BTW I have the original dark red ones with the coiled cable.

Hmm... And why this instead of EQ?

Some of my sources don't have adequate EQ (CD Player, Pandora, Soundcloud)

 

[harvinstein]

Not sure if there is any real technical reason, but I did it because I didn't want to keep fiddling with the EQ, and also as an experiment to see what it did to the sound.

 

[buttons252]

ive fiddled with software EQs a lot, and it seems like the entire sound quality is diminished when i do so even though i am able to fix one part of the frequency the overall affect is generally negative.  

 

[BigCabDaddy]

ive fiddled with software EQs a lot, and it seems like the entire sound quality is diminished when i do so even though i am able to fix one part of the frequency the overall affect is generally negative.  

I'm in way over my head here, but I think a filter like this should be much more destructive to the sound wave forms than a digital filter. Need some engineer geeks to weigh in here. I know back in analog days, the general goal was to have as little filtering as possible.

 

[AncientWsidom]

I don't think a resistor adaptor can be considered a filter as such. It will affect the impedance as seen by the [power] source (amplifier in this case) and therefore will affect the way the headphones behave, most notably probably the damping factor.
I'm not an engineer, however I am a student doing an EE degree... that said I can't say I totally connect the material in the classroom to the world of headphones, at least yet.

 

[DefQon]

I don't think a resistor adaptor can be considered a filter as such. It will affect the impedance as seen by the [power] source (amplifier in this case) and therefore will affect the way the headphones behave, most notably probably the damping factor.
I'm not an engineer, however I am a student doing an EE degree... that said I can't say I totally connect the material in the classroom to the world of headphones, at least yet.

You actually pretty much nailed it. The damping factor will cause anomaly behaviour with the treble and highs mainly. One thing I'm trying to experiment is by increasing these to 600ohm's driven from a source with adequate power it should tame the highs a bit and bring the treble out slightly making it controlled. I can't find 600ohm resistors though.

 

[AncientWsidom]

Quote:

You actually pretty much nailed it. 

Hey, cool! very happy about that

 
Would 600 Ohms increase the voltage requirement tremendously?
 
Another thing I don't get is the mix between electrical damping and mechanical damping: I'm guessing the phones are designed in a way those two work together and by altering the electrical damping factor wouldn't you possibly get into a situation where they interfere with each other?
 
Also wanted to ask: for the peeps that changed the pads to HiFiMan pads - how do you secure them? I find that they fall of really easily....

 

[DefQon]

600ohm wouldn't increase the current needed by a large amount, but it'd definitely put the 011 into the category of using a good desktop amp to drive them to do it justice. 
 
I'm guessing you're referring mechanical dampening to things such as baffle, dynamat dampening made to the interior of the driver housing and drivers itself to adjust change in sound?

 

[Kamiru]

Will a different tube in my Aune T1 tube amp help with toning down the highs?
Also, what is the best way the clean the pads?

 

[AncientWsidom]

Quote:

I'm guessing you're referring mechanical dampening to things such as baffle, dynamat dampening made to the interior of the driver housing and drivers itself to adjust change in sound?

Yes.

 

[rcoolb2002]

Well I now own a pair of Fa-011. I purchased them off EBAY and they are the dark/straight cord (v2). Cosmetically I feel they are a great piece for the price, minus the tarnished brass plate, but that is easily fixable.

I will reserve any review of the sound quality at this time since I am only running them through a Recon3D onboard, requiring 3/4+ volume settings to achieve reasonable listening levels.

Comparing apples and oranges here, but even unamped they sound much better in every dimension than my Bose QC 15's. May be irrelevant to some since they clearly fill vastly different roles, but I was in the situation where I already had the QC15's and was debating buying something else simply for better SQ. It is near impossible to find a comparison of the QC15 to a non ANC headphone, and most reviews vaguely describe the QC15 ($300) as a decent SQ competitor to low end mid-fi ($150) headphones.

I plan to recable, amp, and clean up these cans. Take my time and enjoy my first foray into "better-fi" audio.

I do want to say thanks for all the time some people clearly dedicate to this forum. It really helps me pass my workdays, as well as educate myself on something that I can easily forsee becoming a passion of mine.

 

[cdawall]

Got my set in from Dimitri. This was a set he had sitting around because they were damaged (PCB ended up desoldering itself). After repair they are a good set of inexpensive headphones.
 
I apologize for image quality I am deployed using a cell phone.
 

 

 

[jesh462]

Ok, I've had these phones a while and am looking to give them a worthy amp.
I've read through the last few dozen pages of stuff looking for what others are using and everyone agrees WARM SOUNDING. Well that's all well and good, but that leaves me clueless. I found out the O2 is transparent and not that great, same for the Magni, so those are off the list. I also don't want to deal with a tube amp. Any suggestions? I want something higher quality that I won't feel the urge to upgrade from until I'm rolling in money.
 
btw come back in one piece cdawall.   =) Airforce?

 

[rcoolb2002]

  Ok, I've had these phones a while and am looking to give them a worthy amp.
I've read through the last few dozen pages of stuff looking for what others are using and everyone agrees WARM SOUNDING. Well that's all well and good, but that leaves me clueless. I found out the O2 is transparent and not that great, same for the Magni, so those are off the list. I also don't want to deal with a tube amp. Any suggestions? I want something higher quality that I won't feel the urge to upgrade from until I'm rolling in money.
 
btw come back in one piece cdawall.   =) Airforce?

 
I can't really compare to other amp setups, but I am using Fiio e17/e09k with mine and it definitely helped control the highs and deliver the bass.  I won't listen to FA-011's from anything else, I'll grab a different set of cans first.
 
Why do you assume Airforce... because he has headphones and headphone stand while "deployed" 

 

[DefQon]

FA-011 + tubes = bliss.