[DarginMahkum]

Hi all. I am just about the decide for my next in-ears and realised that the KSE1500 prices started to drop in Europe, about 15%. K55 in Switzerland and Gear4Music are the two examples and MusicStation in Germany told me that maybe next week there might be a change. As the KSE1500 came out 2 years ago around this time, do you think there is a new model coming out? Did anyone hear anything?

Coming back to the first topic: I am trying to decide between KSE1500, Xelento and ProPhile8. If it is gonna be KSE1500, I would like to use its own DAC and not use any external DAC (I have a DX200 for the home listening). Is there a huge difference between a recent DAC chip and the CS4272 implementation in KSE1500? Any recommendations are welcome. Or if you are in the EU and thinking about selling your KSE1500, you can drop me a message.

Cheers!

 

[csglinux]

Hi all. I am just about the decide for my next in-ears and realised that the KSE1500 prices started to drop in Europe, about 15%. K55 in Switzerland and Gear4Music are the two examples and MusicStation in Germany told me that maybe next week there might be a change. As the KSE1500 came out 2 years ago around this time, do you think there is a new model coming out? Did anyone hear anything?

Coming back to the first topic: I am trying to decide between KSE1500, Xelento and ProPhile8. If it is gonna be KSE1500, I would like to use its own DAC and not use any external DAC (I have a DX200 for the home listening). Is there a huge difference between a recent DAC chip and the CS4272 implementation in KSE1500? Any recommendations are welcome. Or if you are in the EU and thinking about selling your KSE1500, you can drop me a message.

Cheers!

It's going to depend on the individual and the DAC in question. I'm of the opinion (based on my ears and my Hugo 2) that the Hugo 2 DAC is better, but the differences are pretty small and you need to listen intently to hear them. I didn't like the DX200 and I doubt that would buy you much anyway, even if you wanted to use its LO. Maybe Blu Mkii M-scalar/DAVE users would see a bigger bump, but I'd be wary of anybody who tells you there's a night and day difference. That's rarely the case in audio and almost never the case with DACs. The DAC in the KSE1500 really isn't that bad.

Just for fun (and to give you an opposing viewpoint from those who are going to post below claiming night and day differences), you might want to check out this thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/whats-an-example-of-a-good-dac.859151/
The folks that camp out on that thread insist all DACs ever made sound the same. You'll need to sift the wheat from the chaff, but there are a few intelligent coherent posts there worth reading.

Of course, there's no substitute for listening for yourself

 

[kubig123]

Hi all. I am just about the decide for my next in-ears and realised that the KSE1500 prices started to drop in Europe, about 15%. K55 in Switzerland and Gear4Music are the two examples and MusicStation in Germany told me that maybe next week there might be a change. As the KSE1500 came out 2 years ago around this time, do you think there is a new model coming out? Did anyone hear anything?

Coming back to the first topic: I am trying to decide between KSE1500, Xelento and ProPhile8. If it is gonna be KSE1500, I would like to use its own DAC and not use any external DAC (I have a DX200 for the home listening). Is there a huge difference between a recent DAC chip and the CS4272 implementation in KSE1500? Any recommendations are welcome. Or if you are in the EU and thinking about selling your KSE1500, you can drop me a message.

Cheers!

If you compare the dac of the KSE1500 to the one from your smartphone, it will be a big improvement, but if you compared it to they DX200, then the DX200 wins without any doubt. But dropping an external dac allow you to carry it easily and may be listen to it more often.
Consider that the KSE dac is able to convert up to 24 bit/ 96 kHz, even $200 dac/dap can do better than this.

I didn't tried the Xelento or the Prophile but the KSE1500 it's for sure one of the best iems on the market and if the price will go down even better!

 

[JR Draper]

Hi all. I am just about the decide for my next in-ears and realised that the KSE1500 prices started to drop in Europe, about 15%. K55 in Switzerland and Gear4Music are the two examples and MusicStation in Germany told me that maybe next week there might be a change. As the KSE1500 came out 2 years ago around this time, do you think there is a new model coming out? Did anyone hear anything?

Coming back to the first topic: I am trying to decide between KSE1500, Xelento and ProPhile8. If it is gonna be KSE1500, I would like to use its own DAC and not use any external DAC (I have a DX200 for the home listening). Is there a huge difference between a recent DAC chip and the CS4272 implementation in KSE1500? Any recommendations are welcome. Or if you are in the EU and thinking about selling your KSE1500, you can drop me a message.

Cheers!

The DAC in the KSE1500 isn't bad, but it's not very musical IMO. For that reason I use the Chord Mojo + Poly streaming DAC which is of higher quality and allows me to Bluetooth music directly to the KSA energizer. It's the best portable solution hands-down.

-JR

 

[csglinux]

Consider that the KSE dac is able to convert up to 24 bit/ 96 kHz, even $200 dac/dap can do better than this.

The KSE1500 DAC has to convert (re-sample) 192/24. It natively supports 96/24. No conversion necessary.

 

[kubig123]

The KSE1500 DAC has to convert (re-sample) 192/24. It natively supports 96/24. No conversion necessary.

Thank you for correcting me.
Yes, it convert everything above 96/24.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Thanks to you all for your feedbacks. @csglinux, thanks I will take a look at it. I believe that DAC does make a difference (at least referring to my signal processing courses from 15 years ago). Even I do believe a good implementation of a 16 bits / 44.1 kHz reconstruction filter can make it sound better then a sloppy hires signal processing section. My about 40 years old hearing system is anyway blind to the frequencies just above 16 kHz. Also I never buy an aftermarket cable, if I don't need, for example, a shorter and ligher cable. If the difference is not a night and day, I think it will be quite good enough for me. Still, I wish I could hear them all 3 before buying... Need to search more.

By the way, just referring to your nick, does the KSE1500 DAC/amp work as a standard USB audio device under Linux (which I would expect, as it works fine with Android devices)?

 

[csglinux]

Thanks to you all for your feedbacks. @csglinux, thanks I will take a look at it. I believe that DAC does make a difference (at least referring to my signal processing courses from 15 years ago). Even I do believe a good implementation of a 16 bits / 44.1 kHz reconstruction filter can make it sound better then a sloppy hires signal processing section. My about 40 years old hearing system is anyway blind to the frequencies just above 16 kHz. Also I never buy an aftermarket cable, if I don't need, for example, a shorter and ligher cable. If the difference is not a night and day, I think it will be quite good enough for me. Still, I wish I could hear them all 3 before buying... Need to search more.

By the way, just referring to your nick, does the KSE1500 DAC/amp work as a standard USB audio device under Linux (which I would expect, as it works fine with Android devices)?

No problems with the Linux distros I use. Just make sure you have the pavucontrol package installed.

 

[TYATYA]

Hi all. I am just about the decide for my next in-ears and realised that the KSE1500 prices started to drop in Europe, about 15%. K55 in Switzerland and Gear4Music are the two examples and MusicStation in Germany told me that maybe next week there might be a change. As the KSE1500 came out 2 years ago around this time, do you think there is a new model coming out? Did anyone hear anything?

Coming back to the first topic: I am trying to decide between KSE1500, Xelento and ProPhile8. If it is gonna be KSE1500, I would like to use its own DAC and not use any external DAC (I have a DX200 for the home listening). Is there a huge difference between a recent DAC chip and the CS4272 implementation in KSE1500? Any recommendations are welcome. Or if you are in the EU and thinking about selling your KSE1500, you can drop me a message.

Cheers!

Take it and join this club you wont be disappoint of kse1500.
About how well sq of cs4272, I can say it is not so much as nigh and day even compare to a&k sp1000.
IMO for most compact combo is just smartphone (w/ uapp) + kse1500(dac mode).
IF you still worry about cs4272 internal dac wont satisfy your need, just buy a shaling M2S (170$) for feeding kse. That dap it hurt me bcs I compare my ak120ii to its sq.

Btw, cs4272 in kse is quite same sound with cs4398 in ak120ii except a thing : ak120ii stronger mid-bass and low-bass, just a bit enough to hear when concentrating enough.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Thanks @TYATYA . I would like to buy it. I am just "trying to" be patient and wait for a second hand one. I am just not very comfortable with spending that much money for something which I did not listen to properly.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Looks like the prices went down also on Thomann. I really suspect something new might be coming...

 

[bmichels]

Looks like the prices went down also on Thomann. I really suspect something new might be coming...

May be a version with a new Amp/Dac with balanced analog input and 192/24 support ?

 

[MRT-Man]

Btw, cs4272 in kse is quite same sound with cs4398 in ak120ii except a thing : ak120ii stronger mid-bass and low-bass, just a bit enough to hear when concentrating enough.

I'd actually disagree, I'd say that the soundstage and separation is also noticeably better with the AK120II. So overall I think going from the KSE DAC to the AK120II is quite a meaningful and noticeable improvement.

 

[TYATYA]

I'd actually disagree, I'd say that the soundstage and separation is also noticeably better with the AK120II. So overall I think going from the KSE DAC to the AK120II is quite a meaningful and noticeable improvement.

To my ears, kse dac sound sharper than ak120ii. By this sharpness I feel it a bit dry.
Ak120ii is less sharp, ( not means blurry) more bass (even more than sp1000ss) and smoother ( an affect from more bass and less sharp (?), I dont know).
Sound stage of them, I cant feel which one bigger or smaller..... they are both small on kse.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Today I felt myself one step closer to KSE1500. I read on a German forum, from a Shure guy that there is no analog->digital conversion being done on the line-in channel, which is great. That means an external DAC will be used to its full potential - if ever it is needed (and for me this would only happen in office or home situations). Can someone confirm that?