Some questions about the PREDATOR and ER4S

[chihangs]

Hi everyone

I just got a new Predator from Ray a few days ago and I'm burning it in now 24/7 through the DAC with ER4P with P to S cable. While the predator is burning in, I listen to it on my ears sometimes. I know is too early to judge the sound quality of the Predator since I only had it for a few days and I know it does need at least 300 hours burn in for it to sound good. But I still have a few question about it while I'm listening to it now.

First just to let everyone know I'm using the P to S cable with the er4p, which means its a ER4S i'm listening with the Predator.

The problem I have is I get a bad distortion on the bass when I turn the VOL to louder than 1pm on the medium gain. So is this normal? On the low gain is fine , no distortion at all when i turn the VOL all the way but not loud enough for me . It just the same when I use without amp on my 5th gen Ipod which its sure not strong enough to drive the er4s.
On the medium gain when I turn the volume just louder than the max volume on low gain , I start to get distortion with the bass.

so the question is ... is this normal on the predator? will I still have distortion after 300 hours burn in? Or is it has got nothing to do with burn in? All I want is to go just a little louder than what I normally get without amp.

When I plug the er4s into my Yamaha AV reciever's headphone plug, my er4s can go really high volume without distortion. So is it because the Predator just only a portable amp and it is not power enough to drive the er4s at higher volume? or everything will be just fine after at least 300 hours burn in?

Thank you everyone here reading my problems here. I hope i can get some answers here..

Thank you

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

It will get better with burn-in, and it seems to gain more ability to drive difficult headphones as the hours go up. It doesn't seem to stop improving until well past 1,000 hours.

 

[chihangs]

Ok thanks for the reply....

so did you get the same problem as me when you first had the predator?does anyone else here got the same problem as I have above?
I think all i can do now is wait and see ...

 

[Shad3925]

I have the Predator with about 70hrs burn-in, it is fed by a Creative Zen Vision M and using the ER4P's.There is no distortion at all at any volume level.
Have you tried it without the ER4S cable?

 

[chihangs]

hi shad

you don't get distortion at any volume? even on the med gain vol on the max? i just tried it with er4p and it does go louder than with p to s cable but I get a really bad distortion on the bass when i turn the volume to max. ( but it is a bit too loud anyway for my ear with er4p). With ER4S , it needs more power to drive and when I turn the vol to after 2pm on med gain. I start to hear distortion with the bass. (It sounds fine when i listen classical which it don't have much bass in the music, but when there is bass then i will hear distortion)
I think is impossible if I turn the vol to max on med gain with er4p without distortion with bass. And I'm sure my predator had at least 70 hours burn in.

Shad3925....did you use med gain ? or just low gain?

 

[Shad3925]

I suspect you are turning up the volume far more than me.
At the maximum levels I am comfortable with:
1. Min,Med & Max show no distortion
I have not attempted to try at maximum volume.
You must have ears of steel if you can stand the volume at 2pm on medium gain