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The Centrance HiFi M8 thread
Oct 4, 2013 at 4:24 PM Post #3,691 of 5,999
I pre-ordered mid December and received the tracking info yesterday. The M-8 arrived lunchtime today. Sounding amazing but I have a problem.
I'm hearing the occasional cracking sound, a spike of some sort. I hear it with both my iPod Classic and my iPhone 5 and with both my HD600's and HD800's.
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Update: Since posting the above Centrance have been in contact with me about the problem.
 
Oct 5, 2013 at 10:09 AM Post #3,692 of 5,999
aamefford said:
Been curious on the same subject. @barbes, are you using just to charge?  Or actually, I think the M8 runs off battery, even when plugged in, and the charger just charges the battery?  Trying to get my arms around the CEntrance supplied 19V charger vs. these 12V chargers.  If they charge the battery, even more slowly, they would be ideal for travel, though maybe not as good for a quick recharge on layover between flights.  Has anyone found a 19V charger that is more compact, or does the voltage of the charger really matter?
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The smaller charger will recharge the M8 and a Classic or Touch pretty quickly. I don't use the M8 with an iPad when I'm traveling, so I'm not sure about that.
 
Oct 7, 2013 at 10:39 AM Post #3,693 of 5,999
I believe Michael previously posted that charging the M8 at 9-20 Vdc would be appropriate.  He also said that you need about 22.5 W to feed all the devices in the M8 (e.g. 4.5A @ 5Vdc).  So at 12 Vdc you'd most likely need a 2A charger for the M8.  I don't know how much additional charging power a parasitic idevice would require.
 
Oct 8, 2013 at 8:59 AM Post #3,694 of 5,999
Fedex arrived at my door yesterday with my Hifi-M8 so I've been running around like a crazy person plugging it into as many sources as possible to see the results. So far my lofty expectations have been more than met. I will probably be looking for a replacement power brick as well though. That thing is larger than the one I use with my laptop.
 
Oct 10, 2013 at 11:32 AM Post #3,696 of 5,999
expatinjapan said:
Wondering whether to butcher my ATH-ESW11 and re-terminate them in 4-pin XLR (and maybe a recable).

Thoughts and advice please.
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I will go ahead and say, "Do it!" I recable everything. Since your headphones are already dual entry, they would be a cinch to add an XLR to. It shouldn't be too hard to access the drivers either for a full recable (based on ESW9s). Main downside is that you lose the ability to go single ended without a big adapter. You could do mini XLR for lighter weight adapter swaps.
 
Oct 10, 2013 at 9:21 PM Post #3,700 of 5,999
You have both raised good points and need some more clarification from Michael or someone.

The Hifi-M8 has balanced output jack, but also has a single out. Are these separate within the Hifi-m8 or connected?

Michael (or someone) please help with more information.
 
Oct 11, 2013 at 10:29 AM Post #3,701 of 5,999
I am still waffling about the IEM mod and am trying to simulate what it does.  According to Michael, it will reduce the gain by 6db at all settings.  In Foobar, I can see how many db I am dropping the volume using its volume slider.  Does anyone know if this the slider is accurate?  I can't see why not, but I don't know enough about all the pieces in the chain to tell for sure.  
 
Oct 11, 2013 at 5:25 PM Post #3,702 of 5,999
Just realized my W4Rs came with an inline volume control adapter.  Works perfectly to attenuate the hiss.  I don't notice any dramatic changes in sound signature either.  No mod now that I discovered this.
 
For anyone else who wants to kill the hiss on sensitive IEMs, you can get the inline volume control as part of the Westone Travel Kit.  Cheapest price is $13.95 with free shipping at Sonic Electronix.  
 
Oct 11, 2013 at 5:37 PM Post #3,703 of 5,999
fraggler said:
  Just realized my W4Rs came with an inline volume control adapter.  Works perfectly to attenuate the hiss.  I don't notice any dramatic changes in sound signature either.  No mod now that I discovered this.
 
For anyone else who wants to kill the hiss on sensitive IEMs, you can get the inline volume control as part of the Westone Travel Kit.  Cheapest price is $13.95 with free shipping at Sonic Electronix.  
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I had forgotten about the in line attenuator option.  Shure also sells one.
 
Oct 12, 2013 at 12:18 AM Post #3,704 of 5,999
I've never been big on reviewing products but have to make an exception today.
 
Michael and Stacie were kind enough to have my Hifi-M8 with Combo jacks delivered to me at RMAF today. I immediately connected it to my iPhone 5 with an ADL Ligtning cable from Moon Audio. The iPhone has  somewhere between 45 and 50 GB's of 192/24 files on it -  Stan Getz, Fun, Metallica, Stone Sour, Dusty Springfield, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eminem, The Righteous Brothers, Sam Cooke and whatever else.
 
Well, my personal verdict is in. This thing is fantastic! I used it with the Fostex 900, all of the Audeze including the two (2) new ones, The Beyerdynamic T1, Mr. Speakers and so on. The M8 can drive any of them to earsplitting levels and has none of the upper end grain when playing FLAC files - quite unlike like so many of the other devices to which I compared the M8 using the same iPhone as source.
 
I tried the new closed Audeze using their new DSP/DAC/Amp and was so unimpressed. Then, I plugged them into the Centrance and the headphones were great!
 
I did try the HD-800 with the M8 and really didn't care for them, but I've always found them to be sterile anyway. I can live with balanced Fostex 900's, the T1 or the closed Audeze with the M8.
 
At this moment, I've got my HE-500's on listening to Dusty Springfield. Normally, I prefer the HE-500's with the Schiit Lyr and Bifrost combo. The Centrance as a desktop amp / DAC is working just as well.
 
I apologize for not being able to write the kind of reviews which so many of you do, but I'm just a music collector and don't understand electronics as most of you. So, I just have to say, I have some 50,000 digital songs and videos (obviously I love music) and I love the way the M8 allows me to enjoy my music.
 
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