AudioDwebe
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Posts
- 1,691
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- 111
Disclaimer: I wasn’t sure where to place this, as it’s more about my attempt at the RSA-used balanced connector. So I thought about placing it in the cables category, but then decided to post it here. Moderators, if this is in the wrong forum, please feel free to move it to the appropriate location.
Main point up front: Man, this thing (Protector) sounds really, REALLY, good!
There, I'm done.
Not really.
So I got this in the mail yesterday (thanks, Ray, if you're reading this thread) while at the office and wasn't really able to use it as, one, I don't yet have an LOD (c'mon mail man...c'mon mail man); two, while I have my CDP with RCA to 3.5mm connection, I had no CDs at the office. But mainly I didn't try it out at the office (how much self-control is that, ladies and gents?!?!) because I wanted to burn this amp in using balanced IEMs. And I didn't have that yet 'cause, yep, you've guess it - my connectors came shipped with the amp.
So off to Rat Shack I went after work to get some shrink tubing, a soldering pencil and some rosin, just in case my crapola of a soldering pencil at home wasn't working up to snuff. When I finally got home, I set up the work station (okay, my coffee table with a bright lamp) and changed into my DIY uniform. Yeah, okay, no uniform, really...I just took off my shoes.
The first scheduled operation for the evening was making my own LOD. I've seen YouTube; I've seen pictures; I could do it.
LOD...check. I had one from the many iPod products I've purchased over the years. It's the LOD that connects via USB to a computer.
3.5 mm plug...check. I decided to sacrifice the iBud that I accidently put through not only the washer, but also the dryer. Surprisingly, it still worked, but the heat of the dryer removed the soft rubber outer ring and the Protector gods had selected it as the "chosen one."
I thought to myself, "Too easy." I thought wrong.
I cut the LOD end first, and removed about 1/2" of the outer plastic. Lo and behold, there's about five or seventy tiny little wires. I was expecting three. Left, right and ground. How stupid of me.
Then I decided to cut the wire on the iBud and removed the same 1/2". Holy cow! On this end the wire was so thin...and I mean super thin, tiny. It was literally like three pieces of thread.
Why I even bothered cutting the iBud is still beyond me. I already knew the LOD part of the equation was done, kaput, over with but you know, I had a well-formulated plan and I was sticking to it.
Since there was no way I'd be able to put solder on thread, out of curiosity I removed the rubber encasing the plug, expecting to find either solder or some other connection joints. Nope. That little bugger was sealed shut.
First operation, failure.
Scheduled Operation Number 2: Reterminate IEM.
IEM...check. In this case, the CK100's which I've had for about a month or so. Fortunately, the wires on these, like the CK10's, are easy to tell that there are two completely separate wires leading from the connector to the IEMs. A perfect candidate for easy retermination. The CK10 and 100 are the only reason I purchased the Protector, as I wasn't about to spend additional cash to send in an IEM anywhere and spend that kind of money.
Call me, “Cheap Charlie”.
Balanced Connector from RSA...check.
While I glanced at the connectors while at the office, I didn't really look at where the wires would need to be connected. My eyes squinted. They squinted a few more times. Then blurriness set in. If I were a few years older, I would have looked at the connector and said, "These are defective, damn it! There's nothing there."
So apparently, I was supposed to connect four wires, soldered no less, to four tiny posts in an area of the size of a few atoms. It's like asking Shaq to text using an iPhone. My guess: Many misspelled words.
Looking at the connector, I had second thoughts. Maybe sending it to someone and spending the extra moo-lah was the way to go.
Then the man in me kicked in. No, I didn't get a woodie (mind out of gutter, please). You know, that part of you that would rather break, demolish, destroy or make into a totally useless mess of anything rather than simply asking for help, or paying someone to do something so easy anyone can do it. Yep. That part.
I looked at my CK100 plug in my left hand…my scissors in my right hand…placed the scissors over the wire…held my breath…paused…reflected…then cut.
I pulled apart the wire (presumably left/right), removed about ½” of the rubber covering and out popped two wires. Green and copper colored. And they, too, were pretty small. Not quite “thread” small, but small nevertheless. But the thing that confused me: There was no shielding, per se, around each of the two wires that were exposed once I removed the outer covering. This worried me a bit.
I’ve messed around with plenty of speaker wires of all varieties and costs, but one thing they all had in common was a shielding (or insulation) of each wire from the other wires. And yet this (IEM wire) looked, for all intents and purposes, to be both a positive and negative running side by side, touching. I figured the coloring of the cable was a covering of sorts, but was still quite concerned.
When I removed the other wire cover, the colors were red and copper. I figured the common color was the copper and went with the assumption that it was the ground of each channel.
After I connected all four wires, I was still concerned because they (the two wires +/-) were touching and only separated where they were soldered to the posts. I didn’t want to take a chance of either blowing the amp or IEMs to I disconnected all four wires, reconnected them to the old plug, and tried them out on a portable CDP. Everything worked fine.
Back to the balanced connector I went. Re-soldered all wires and made sure none were touching and used some hot glue to make sure they remained that way. Once that cooled, I placed a good gob of hot glue on the covering (top) of the connector and squeezed together. Much glue oozed out, making me feel pretty confident that the entire interior of the connector was not solid. I forgot to mention that I placed some shrink wrap near the solder, extending about a third of an inch past the housing to act as both stress relief and extra foundation for stability.
Once the glue cooled, I peeled it off of the connector housing. A little bit remained where the wire come out, but I left that in place to act as a reinforcement for the stress relief. I then sat back and looked at my handiwork. “Not bad” I thought to myself.
Unfortunately, I had to stop there because even though I searched throughout my house for something to connect the Protector to something, anything, but nothing could be found. I thought I had an RCA to 3.5mm connector, but unfortunately, that was at the office. And I didn’t have a 3.5 to 3.5 connector, either. Damn!
This morning, I left early for work thinkin’ I’d stop by Wal-Mart to get a 3.5 to 3.5 connector just in case I decided that I wanted to be able to walk around with the Protector, as the RCA to 3.5 would have kept it tied down to my desk. As I’m in there looking, it hits me that I already had one of these in my car to connect my iPod to car stereo. So it turns out I could have tried this out last night had I not had a brain fart.
Got to the office, took out all my toys, connected the Protector via the headphone out (for now) of my iPod and ran through two test tracks I’d uploaded from my Stereophile test CD. Specifically, those tests were the one for channel separation and phase check.
I listened to them SE using the IE8’s that I had on me. Just the talking and electric bass that plays, heard SE, had me thinking, “Hmm. That’s sounds pretty robust.” The amp checked out fine SE.
I then shut off the amp, connected the balanced CK100’s, held my breath and turned on the amp. No smoke from the amp…a good sign. And I heard a slight pop when the amp turned on (same as I heard in SE mode with IEMs that I know were wired correctly)…still a good sign. Then I heard the channel test. Held my breath; left channel came from left IEM and right channel sounded through the right. So far so good. Then the phase test was played while still holding my breath.
SUCCESS!! YESS!!! I had correctly reterminated my IEMs.
Even with just a few minutes under its belt, I’ve noticed that the headstage has greatly been improved. There’s more of a sense of the sound coming from foot or so around my head, as opposed to directly between my ears. The amp seems ballsy in a good way. It controls and manhandles these IEMs in a very nicely and definitely will not lack in dynamics.
The CK100’s have been very midcentric and it took me, literally, upwards of two weeks to get used to their sound signature. Once I got used to them, I began to truly enjoy them. During this “dating” phase, I’ve even used my home amps just to see how, if at all, the sound would change. I’ve heard these sound way too mellow (DC/EC) to truly excellent (ZD). The Protector already falls into the category of the latter. This forwardness in the midrange I now only notice occasionally, and it’s recording dependent whereas at first, that’s the only thing I noticed.
Getting back to the subject of “headstage,” I think some recordings render a more dramatic shift in the size than others. At least it’s more noticeable with certain recordings over that of others. Also, imagines within this headstage seem more precisely laid out, more stable, on a more solid foundation.
What does this “more solid foundation” mean? Not quite sure. Those are just the words that popped into my head while listening just now. I’m thinking it has something to do with the grip and control this amp shows the IEMs currently being used.
As of right now, a whopping two five into the listening experience from the headphone out, I am already enjoying the sound and look forward to the burn-in process. I also look forward to the LOD arriving.
I’m sure there will be more to follow…
Main point up front: Man, this thing (Protector) sounds really, REALLY, good!
There, I'm done.
Not really.
So I got this in the mail yesterday (thanks, Ray, if you're reading this thread) while at the office and wasn't really able to use it as, one, I don't yet have an LOD (c'mon mail man...c'mon mail man); two, while I have my CDP with RCA to 3.5mm connection, I had no CDs at the office. But mainly I didn't try it out at the office (how much self-control is that, ladies and gents?!?!) because I wanted to burn this amp in using balanced IEMs. And I didn't have that yet 'cause, yep, you've guess it - my connectors came shipped with the amp.
So off to Rat Shack I went after work to get some shrink tubing, a soldering pencil and some rosin, just in case my crapola of a soldering pencil at home wasn't working up to snuff. When I finally got home, I set up the work station (okay, my coffee table with a bright lamp) and changed into my DIY uniform. Yeah, okay, no uniform, really...I just took off my shoes.
The first scheduled operation for the evening was making my own LOD. I've seen YouTube; I've seen pictures; I could do it.
LOD...check. I had one from the many iPod products I've purchased over the years. It's the LOD that connects via USB to a computer.
3.5 mm plug...check. I decided to sacrifice the iBud that I accidently put through not only the washer, but also the dryer. Surprisingly, it still worked, but the heat of the dryer removed the soft rubber outer ring and the Protector gods had selected it as the "chosen one."
I thought to myself, "Too easy." I thought wrong.
I cut the LOD end first, and removed about 1/2" of the outer plastic. Lo and behold, there's about five or seventy tiny little wires. I was expecting three. Left, right and ground. How stupid of me.
Then I decided to cut the wire on the iBud and removed the same 1/2". Holy cow! On this end the wire was so thin...and I mean super thin, tiny. It was literally like three pieces of thread.
Why I even bothered cutting the iBud is still beyond me. I already knew the LOD part of the equation was done, kaput, over with but you know, I had a well-formulated plan and I was sticking to it.
Since there was no way I'd be able to put solder on thread, out of curiosity I removed the rubber encasing the plug, expecting to find either solder or some other connection joints. Nope. That little bugger was sealed shut.
First operation, failure.
Scheduled Operation Number 2: Reterminate IEM.
IEM...check. In this case, the CK100's which I've had for about a month or so. Fortunately, the wires on these, like the CK10's, are easy to tell that there are two completely separate wires leading from the connector to the IEMs. A perfect candidate for easy retermination. The CK10 and 100 are the only reason I purchased the Protector, as I wasn't about to spend additional cash to send in an IEM anywhere and spend that kind of money.
Call me, “Cheap Charlie”.
Balanced Connector from RSA...check.
While I glanced at the connectors while at the office, I didn't really look at where the wires would need to be connected. My eyes squinted. They squinted a few more times. Then blurriness set in. If I were a few years older, I would have looked at the connector and said, "These are defective, damn it! There's nothing there."
So apparently, I was supposed to connect four wires, soldered no less, to four tiny posts in an area of the size of a few atoms. It's like asking Shaq to text using an iPhone. My guess: Many misspelled words.
Looking at the connector, I had second thoughts. Maybe sending it to someone and spending the extra moo-lah was the way to go.
Then the man in me kicked in. No, I didn't get a woodie (mind out of gutter, please). You know, that part of you that would rather break, demolish, destroy or make into a totally useless mess of anything rather than simply asking for help, or paying someone to do something so easy anyone can do it. Yep. That part.
I looked at my CK100 plug in my left hand…my scissors in my right hand…placed the scissors over the wire…held my breath…paused…reflected…then cut.
I pulled apart the wire (presumably left/right), removed about ½” of the rubber covering and out popped two wires. Green and copper colored. And they, too, were pretty small. Not quite “thread” small, but small nevertheless. But the thing that confused me: There was no shielding, per se, around each of the two wires that were exposed once I removed the outer covering. This worried me a bit.
I’ve messed around with plenty of speaker wires of all varieties and costs, but one thing they all had in common was a shielding (or insulation) of each wire from the other wires. And yet this (IEM wire) looked, for all intents and purposes, to be both a positive and negative running side by side, touching. I figured the coloring of the cable was a covering of sorts, but was still quite concerned.
When I removed the other wire cover, the colors were red and copper. I figured the common color was the copper and went with the assumption that it was the ground of each channel.
After I connected all four wires, I was still concerned because they (the two wires +/-) were touching and only separated where they were soldered to the posts. I didn’t want to take a chance of either blowing the amp or IEMs to I disconnected all four wires, reconnected them to the old plug, and tried them out on a portable CDP. Everything worked fine.
Back to the balanced connector I went. Re-soldered all wires and made sure none were touching and used some hot glue to make sure they remained that way. Once that cooled, I placed a good gob of hot glue on the covering (top) of the connector and squeezed together. Much glue oozed out, making me feel pretty confident that the entire interior of the connector was not solid. I forgot to mention that I placed some shrink wrap near the solder, extending about a third of an inch past the housing to act as both stress relief and extra foundation for stability.
Once the glue cooled, I peeled it off of the connector housing. A little bit remained where the wire come out, but I left that in place to act as a reinforcement for the stress relief. I then sat back and looked at my handiwork. “Not bad” I thought to myself.
Unfortunately, I had to stop there because even though I searched throughout my house for something to connect the Protector to something, anything, but nothing could be found. I thought I had an RCA to 3.5mm connector, but unfortunately, that was at the office. And I didn’t have a 3.5 to 3.5 connector, either. Damn!
This morning, I left early for work thinkin’ I’d stop by Wal-Mart to get a 3.5 to 3.5 connector just in case I decided that I wanted to be able to walk around with the Protector, as the RCA to 3.5 would have kept it tied down to my desk. As I’m in there looking, it hits me that I already had one of these in my car to connect my iPod to car stereo. So it turns out I could have tried this out last night had I not had a brain fart.
Got to the office, took out all my toys, connected the Protector via the headphone out (for now) of my iPod and ran through two test tracks I’d uploaded from my Stereophile test CD. Specifically, those tests were the one for channel separation and phase check.
I listened to them SE using the IE8’s that I had on me. Just the talking and electric bass that plays, heard SE, had me thinking, “Hmm. That’s sounds pretty robust.” The amp checked out fine SE.
I then shut off the amp, connected the balanced CK100’s, held my breath and turned on the amp. No smoke from the amp…a good sign. And I heard a slight pop when the amp turned on (same as I heard in SE mode with IEMs that I know were wired correctly)…still a good sign. Then I heard the channel test. Held my breath; left channel came from left IEM and right channel sounded through the right. So far so good. Then the phase test was played while still holding my breath.
SUCCESS!! YESS!!! I had correctly reterminated my IEMs.
Even with just a few minutes under its belt, I’ve noticed that the headstage has greatly been improved. There’s more of a sense of the sound coming from foot or so around my head, as opposed to directly between my ears. The amp seems ballsy in a good way. It controls and manhandles these IEMs in a very nicely and definitely will not lack in dynamics.
The CK100’s have been very midcentric and it took me, literally, upwards of two weeks to get used to their sound signature. Once I got used to them, I began to truly enjoy them. During this “dating” phase, I’ve even used my home amps just to see how, if at all, the sound would change. I’ve heard these sound way too mellow (DC/EC) to truly excellent (ZD). The Protector already falls into the category of the latter. This forwardness in the midrange I now only notice occasionally, and it’s recording dependent whereas at first, that’s the only thing I noticed.
Getting back to the subject of “headstage,” I think some recordings render a more dramatic shift in the size than others. At least it’s more noticeable with certain recordings over that of others. Also, imagines within this headstage seem more precisely laid out, more stable, on a more solid foundation.
What does this “more solid foundation” mean? Not quite sure. Those are just the words that popped into my head while listening just now. I’m thinking it has something to do with the grip and control this amp shows the IEMs currently being used.
As of right now, a whopping two five into the listening experience from the headphone out, I am already enjoying the sound and look forward to the burn-in process. I also look forward to the LOD arriving.
I’m sure there will be more to follow…
