[Nintendo Maniac]

Now that I think of it, I would imagine that for cord mods it'd be much easier to get the fabric off the black 9927 IEMs than it would be to get the rubber off the white 9963 IEMs.

 

[FrozenPanda]

  Now that I think of it, I would imagine that for cord mods it'd be much easier to get the fabric off the black 9927 IEMs than it would be to get the rubber off the white 9963 IEMs.

Not necessarily? You're assuming that people are cutting the cords off? usually for recabling, people open up the earbud and unsolder the wires.

 

[Staida]

Hokay - looks like my Jabra Ear Gels will ne here today. I'm not working at the moment so... I will return this afternoon with a build post for that.
 
I will probably post it on instructables as well (if it works out) since I am fairly convinced what we have here is the SINGLE BEST inexpensive 14mm driver in a 'reference monitor' style IEM.
 
I don't know yet whether the best sound will come from sealing the driver just straight into the Jabra gel or from some combination of the stock plastic casing and the Jabra gel OR even yet, some other custom housing and piping inside that gel.
 
I may have to order several pairs and ruin a number of them finding out but in the end I hope to have something so comfortable and so great sounding that we sell Amazon out of both items and we all wear Westone-looking jealousy-inspiring BAD ASS (super cheap, our little secret) IEM monitors for under $20, 30 minutes and some glue.
 
We shall see...

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

  Not necessarily? You're assuming that people are cutting the cords off? usually for recabling, people open up the earbud and unsolder the wires.

I wouldn't really call that cutting off the cord, the more accurate turn would be stripping.
 
But yes, I had no idea that people were actually desoldering the wires for recabling.

 

[HAMS]

I wonder if you have read recabling guide?

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

I admittedly haven't, but that was because rather than recabling I took it upon myself to test out some 9963 IEMs and their supposed rubberized cable (before I got mine there was hardly any info available on the 9963s).

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

*sigh* Why does it feel like I'm double-posting all the time...
 
Just opened up and tested my replacement 9963 IEMs and at least out of the box the bass balance is fine.  Much like my black 9927 IEMs, I still thought that the right side is a TEENY bit weaker in bass but after switching the left and right speakers around I think that very tiny practically placebo difference is from the difference in shape between my two ears and/or ear canals.
 
So yay, I have balanced bass.  Now I can finally enjoy my dual SOIC LME49990 DIP8 op amp that I installed on my Asus Xonar DS (I had been using the stock op amp).  Interestingly enough it was when I installed said op amp/s that I noticed the bass imbalance - could a higher-quality op amp make such a thing more noticeable?
 
Oh, two downsides to new headphones - 1. have to re-burn them in all over again, and 2. the cord is all zig-zagged and wiggly from being wrapped up in the box. >_>

 

[jekostas]

  *sigh* Why does it feel like I'm double-posting all the time...
 
Just opened up and tested my replacement 9963 IEMs and at least out of the box the bass balance is fine.  Much like my black 9927 IEMs, I still thought that the right side is a TEENY bit weaker in bass but after switching the left and right speakers around I think that very tiny practically placebo difference is from the difference in shape between my two ears and/or ear canals.
 
So yay, I have balanced bass.  Now I can finally enjoy my dual SOIC LME49990 DIP8 op amp that I installed on my Asus Xonar DS (I had been using the stock op amp).  Interestingly enough it was when I installed said op amp/s that I noticed the bass imbalance - could a higher-quality op amp make such a thing more noticeable?
 
Oh, two downsides to new headphones - 1. have to re-burn them in all over again, and 2. the cord is all zig-zagged and wiggly from being wrapped up in the box. >_>

 
It's much more likely that by installing the "improved" op-amp you've significantly compromised the circuit design of your Xonar DS leading to serious audio degradation.  
 
Asus put thousands of dollars (if not much more) in to the research, design and testing of their cards and you just threw all of that out the window.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

   
It's much more likely that by installing the "improved" op-amp you've significantly compromised the circuit design of your Xonar DS leading to serious audio degradation.  
 
Asus put thousands of dollars (if not much more) in to the research, design and testing of their cards and you just threw all of that out the window.

Aren't you being a bit over-dramatic?
 
 
1. The Xonar DS isn't really a high-end sound card at all, it's only about $50 new or $40 after rebate (mine was used for $25)  That's basically the same price for a lowest of the low-end new CPU or GPU.
 
2. The lower-end Xonar series are more of gamer sound cards, note the lack of an optical out on the Xonar DS.  Surely the stock op amp isn't that optimized for music.
 
3. Considering that the op amp is user-swappable and is even advertised as such, don't you think Asus would have expected this functionality?
 
 
The way I see it, a gamer would never care to swap out an op amp.  This way Asus can just throw in a half-decent cheap op amp that a gamer would be satisfied with but leave the ability to swap the op amp out if the user wants to have something more optimal for music playback.
 
For reference, the stock Xonar DS op amp is a Texas Instruments NE5532P.
 
 
EDIT: The following forum topic shows that the dual LME49990 DIP8 op amp(s) is a compatible drop-in replacement of the NE5532P:
http://mail.audiokarma.net/forums/showthread.php?t=360210

 

[jekostas]

No, I'm not.  The fact that you can do something doesn't mean you should do it.  The simple fact is that the Xonar was designed around the NE5532P, not your replacement.
 
I mean, you could change the tires on your car and try and run racing slicks all year round but I wouldn't suggest you do that either.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

  The fact that you can do something doesn't mean you should do it.

 
If it was something you shouldn't do then it wouldn't have even been advertised since someone could sue.
 
Just because one says they're not being over-dramatic does not mean that others won't perceive you as being over-dramatic.
 
Also, by your logic, an off-the-shelf desktop PC is better left alone than if you were to replace the power supply with a Platnium-rated SeaSonic one or replace the hard drive with a Crucial M500. (protip: the hard drive speed and the power supply are the two most common things OEMs cheapen out on)

 

[jekostas]

Alright, whatever. I mean, you're the one who said that you experienced audio performance issues when you "upgraded" your op amp. The fact that you can't figure out cause and effect is frankly baffling.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

tl;dr: I also own a pair of black 9927 IEMs which did not exhibit the issue with reduced bass in the right speaker.
 
 
Quote:

Alright, whatever. I mean, you're the one who said that you experienced audio performance issues when you "upgraded" your op amp. The fact that you can't figure out cause and effect is frankly baffling.

 
I think you missed these two very important points:

  I compared against my black 9927 IEMs which I think exhibit a little bit less bass in the right channel but nothing noticeable in normal listening not to mention it had no noticeable (or very minor) tone difference, and even then that may just be placebo.

Originally Posted by Nintendo Maniac /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Much like my black 9927 IEMs, I still thought that the right side is a TEENY bit weaker in bass but after switching the left and right speakers around I think that very tiny practically placebo difference is from the difference in shape between my two ears and/or ear canals.

 

[Staida]

Alright, whatever. I mean, you're the one who said that you experienced audio performance issues when you "upgraded" your op amp. The fact that you can't figure out cause and effect is frankly baffling.

What is wrong with this person. Who cares? You're behaving as though your mom works in the Asus audio research lab and that this TI amp (along with her great homemade cookies) are the 2 most unassailable things in the known world.
Just slap someone with your right glove and get your dueling pistols out.
I'll be second for Nintendo Maniac... you may have trouble finding one to take your side.

 

[jgwtriode]

No, I have a smallish ear canal but large ears externally, thus the thing doesn't really touch my ear much. AND I'm going to strip a lot of that plastic off when I mod them into the gels (as they are not 'tips' exactly but are much larger, intended to go over earbuds - and they have a built-in canal pipe molded in the gel)

I am curious about this gel mod...tell me more. Btw the cyanosis late doping of
the drivers doesn't really alter the bass...tightens it up a bit. Rather in stiffening the driver it improves detail, upper frequency extention and lowers resonnance. It is my reference better than tweaked re 400, which is slightly
preferable to stock re 600. Fwiw!

Happy Listening!