You can click on tabao link above, you can use google translate for customer feedback. The IEM is NF Audio NM2++( NiceHCK Goldenfall Cable).Include stock 3.5mm AUX cable. Listening on Deezer Hifi. I just ordered a knob below to replace.
Unfortunately, eBay and AliExpress both aren't shipping to India for different reasons. On eBay it's the seller and AliExpress is banned as of now. Maybe I'll search them on some other portals. Fingers crossed.
You can click on tabao link above, you can use google translate for customer feedback. The IEM is NF Audio NM2++( NiceHCK Goldenfall Cable).Include stock 3.5mm AUX cable. Listening on Deezer Hifi. I just ordered a knob below to replace.
Thanks @povidlo, there is a great wealth of information and expertise on the dedicated Portable Tube Amp thread. I cannot believe I did not know the thread existed.
Just sharing info, this upgradtis of mine is worthy to mention for synergy with small portable bluetooth receivers with ease of control from thier app. Timing usage for playing around 6 hours using IEMs only.
Pros:
Feels solid, wonderful sound and gives the option of three imputs, bluetooth, USB and 3.5mm (which doubles as an output).
It has a 4.4mm balanced output, a 4100 mah battery and a well-weighted volume pot, so you will not turn up the volume accidentally.
They claim it has a maximum output of 1W @32 Ohms.
Very good bluetooth connection and has a discreet mute button when required.
Wider than my M11 and Littlebear B4X, but the right side of portable, as opposed to "transportable".
Cons:
Although the metal frame feels solid, it has clear plastic back and front, not obvious until you tap on it, but glass would have increased weight and price.
Synergy:
How does it pair with my IEMs? It is early days but with 2 independent ESS9038 DAC chips, good Amps plus Headphone Amp, the sound is clean, clear and detailed. Sounds brilliant with the TD08 so far.
I will report back when I find synergy with my IEMs. For now I am still a tube amp addict!
Pros:
Feels solid, wonderful sound and gives the option of three imputs, bluetooth, USB and 3.5mm (which doubles as an output).
It has a 4.4mm balanced output, a 4100 mah battery and a well-weighted volume pot, so you will not turn up the volume accidentally.
They claim it has a maximum output of 1W @32 Ohms.
Very good bluetooth connection and has a discreet mute button when required.
Wider than my M11 and Littlebear B4X, but the right side of portable, as opposed to "transportable".
Cons:
Although the metal frame feels solid, it has clear plastic back and front, not obvious until you tap on it, but glass would have increased weight and price.
Synergy:
How does it pair with my IEMs? It is early days but with 2 independent ESS9038 DAC chips, good Amps plus Headphone Amp, the sound is clean, clear and detailed. Sounds brilliant with the TD08 so far.
I will report back when I find synergy with my IEMs. For now I am still a tube amp addict!
Well sussed! Yes, it does use a use a digital potentiometer (the volume knob rotates freely, no start or end point) so reference to volume scale is on the screen, and yes, there is no channel imbalance, to my ears at least.
Battery life is odd, sometimes OK, but once, I got about 4 hours, I am not sure why. The HA11 then takes 4 hours to charge up. I may try a fast charger in future.
I am not sure about battery life, quite simply because, with very little information out there on the HA11, and (what is pathetically described as) the manual, I am not sure if I need to learn a bit more about the HA11 to get more out of it.
I have managed to get in the region of 6 hours at relatively high volume, up to 50% and higher with the, more power hungry, MT300 and Believe.
With other IEMs I have not increased the volume beyond 40%. I have not got round to trying full size headphones with the HA11 yet. The electrostatics, planar and byrilium IEMs demand a lot more power, and I have no reason full size headphones will be less demanding.
Gets a bit warm, but not hot. Handling is not an issue even when warm.
The HA11 is physically wider than your average portable DAC/Amp, despite the width, it is just on the right side of comfortable to hold, for me at least.
The sound cut out on two occasions, I turned off and on again and it was fine. Again, I have not figured out why but it has not happened again for a while, so whatever it is I hope I got over that hurdle.
Sound:
The HA11 sounds so clean, clear and effortless, with such rich subtlety......I could go on and on but put simply, it is neutral without sounding analytical, it is just so mature across the frequency spectrum. Bass earphones give you lots of bass, while other earphones do not disappoint where you would expect them to shine.
It helps that the volume increment (both the physical act of moving the volume knob and the aural experience) is well measured, and it never felt Iike a jolt or sudden blast of sound.
Portability:
A bit wider than than most DAPs but feels good to hold, although the sharpish edges of aluminium frame could have been soften a bit. They may have been trying to make it easier to grip, as the glass (feels like "real-plastic-glass") front and back is so smooth it slides off every with the slightest gradient!
I believe it will fit into many large pockets, maybe not jeans for women.
Synergy:
The HA11 has made all my IEMs sound good. I have tried out a good few of my IEMs and can easily say, the HA11 reveals the true nature of each IEM, both in terms of their tuning and hunger for power.
In conclusion, I am drawn to listen to music using the HA11 everyday and then I keep listening until the battery runs out.
AT Ā£150, I think it is good value for money given the cost of DAPs nowadays. My only reservation is the battery life.
Really nice thread, it would be great to see it going.
So I post here the end results of my HiFi journey over last ~three-four years, that is coming to an end.
The preface would be that the synergy, as most of the aspects of HiFi audio, is quite subjective, preference-dependent and even pre-conditioned by previous habits, setups, listening preferences, etc as I realized in my selection of DACs.
Anyhow, in the end of the last year I unexpectedly settled on my "doing everything for me" IEM: KZ ASX modified with a wide nozzle not to constrain the sound as somehow KZ oddly opted to do in its original form.
Wide nozzles with the wife-bore tips
Then Tempotec V1A works as a nice transport: two SD cards up to 2Ć512 Gb (I have only 650 Gb of music at the moment to carry everything with me); the cards can be read directly (no long library updates); MSEB is really nice and entertaining.
I have got V1A together with the Sonata HD pro on one of the sales for a little bit more than $100 - an amazing deal.
Sonata HD pro is nice and competent, but here the subjectivity kicks in, after using my ESS-based player that is also on a warmer/softer side of the implementation, I found Sonata HD pro a bit "clinical". I was really surprised about it.
Even more surprising is that I found "velvet" AK sound not my cup of cake at all - really did not like Hidizs S9; and BTR3k, while acceptable was less preferable then ESS sound of BTR5 and Shanling UA2 (newer ESS ES9038Q2M).
Unfortunately, UA2 does not work with V1A directly, so it leaves BTR5 as a winner (and cute and competent BTR3K gets a well deserved second place, amazing battery life, so two winners for Fiio). I use Shanling USB-C - USB- c cable when connecting BTR5 non-wirelessly.
Finally, I got two 24-core cables: NiceHCK blue/gray and XINHS custom shorter violet/silver. 24 cores of course - since the higher number of cores provides wider frequency transmission
So my final setup: KZ ASX (wide nozzles);
Wide-bore tips: JVC spiral dots or similar;
24-core cables; BTR5;
Tempotec V1A with two 400 Gb SD cards.
Overall: well under $500
(and perhaps closer to 10X more to get there enjoying the journey as much as the destination )
P. S. To add to an already long story: listening preferences.
I largely listen to classical music, which make mid-treble centric setups most relevant.
Two recent relevant case examples:
-- When someone shared modern Japanese music, I was really surprised how treble-rich it is, I thought that I am treble-non sensitive before
-- While doing the test with .mp3, I was shared "golden audiophiles recordings, impossible to compress" (allegedly), almost nothing was there past ~2 kHz not to distract from the mids. I've also tried KB10 - that is murdering with rich-treble recordings, but it was smooth and non-offensive with those samples. The information on the original recording was plainly refused to be given... A very interesting experience - indeed for enjoying music - very little may be sufficient
Talking about forgotten IEMs, it was the time I found out about using different tips than the Sony Hybrid tips that came with the N3. Also added to the synergy was the updated firmware which took a slow bass centered IEM and moved it to more of a midrange tone? Also soundstage was increased, strangely enough.
The 1A firmware update at the time was DMP-Z1 MK2, I think?
I was just testing it for a friend to see about how the cable works both hanging down and over-ear, when I tried the tips and new firmware. So that was a big surprise!
2)
Next is of course the planned synergy of the TA with IER-Z1R. There is no EQ if you wanted to use it. But firmware updates to the TA have brought it to more treble centric place. Thatās not to say it is treble centric at all because it is not. Finally getting the cradle and AudioQuest Carbon helped get a better source to the TA.
3)
Bad synergy? Lots and lots. Another strange synergy win was the use of the 10 year old DACMagic Plus and Asgard One? Hooking up the DUNU Studio SA6 to that combo was nothing short of amazing! It was the very best combo to date with the Studio SA6?
Having dealt with what the day had to throw at me, I have now settled down at home listening to my music.....or should I say, my fatherās jazz music.
Despite mine, and my siblings protestations, we were indoctrinated by having to listen to my fatherās jazz music, every Sunday. You see, he was the old-fashioned sort, who did not understand what a holiday meant. His idea of a holiday was to go abroad on a business trip, it was one meeting after another, not visiting old churches or lounging around somewhere scenic and watching the world go by. On reflection, listening to his jazz records on Sundays, after church, were his "holidays".
I am now testament to his indoctrination. I am a fully assimilated member of the "raw jazz cult", listening to Ben Webster's album, "Gentle Ben", without laughing at (what I thought as a boy was) the discordant music which at time jazz was to me. Why did they (the individual musicians) have to go off and do their own thing fall back into line pretending they are in a group? My late father would have been in heaven (maybe he is) smiling that his son now understands what it is all about!
I have tried to indoctrinate my daughter but she thinks daddy's music makes no sense. All she wants is to listen to Capital Radio (for those not familiar, one of London's Pop radio stations) and torture her daddy with the track "Goosebumps" or whatever the title is! Yet, they, my daughter and wife, do not want to hear my jazz, to them it is indeed "jazz"...well their loss.
I am therefore to portables, maybe not a bad thing, as I would not suddenly hear, "Goosebumps" blurting out at me.
My synergy chain right at this moment is: Quobuz streaming on Samsung Note 10 plus (no EQ) to the HA11 DAC/Amp, piping through BQEYZ Summer (DD and Piezo hybrid). Boy, this is fun, piano, saxophone, double bass and drums going off on a tangent and then, true to raw jazz, occasionally come together pretending they are part of a group......just delightful!
With lockdown, hopefully, coming to an end, at least in the UK (I am told Singapore just started a lockdown, so not coming to an end everywhere), what is the ideal portable system?
Of course those of us here on Head-fi would have numerous earphones and headphones to choose from, with each excursion outdoors but that is only part of the synergy chain.
John Atkinson of Stereophile.com, master audiophile's advice is to spend a third of your resources on the speakers, the remainder, he suggests, should be equally divided between source and amplification. Then as time passes ungrade starting with the best source and amplification you can afford. Of course, what is best is endlessly debatable.
Here I am thinking of a portable setup. If one were to be true to his [John Atkinson's] advice, strictly in relation to a portable device, what would be ideal source? Stick to a DAP or separate source with a DAC/Amp?
How practical will multiple bits be when travelling squashed, during rush hour, on the London Tube? Even with a messenger bag, is it practical carrying all those bits?
Does it matter how many bits you carry around with you if you get excellent sound quality in synergy with each other?
These are only my muses, no replies to any or all of my rhetorical questions necessary.....just floating thoughts. However, your answers, thoughts, muses and discussions on any of the above or synergy related topics would be a pleasure to read.
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( NiceHCK Goldenfall Cable).Include stock 3.5mm AUX cable. Listening on Deezer Hifi. I just ordered a knob below to replace.
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