webbie64
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2006
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Preface: All of the following is for my ears, based on my impressions, using my methods. To what degree it will be of benefit to others will be dependent on their own synergy of equipment and personal preferences.
I recognise:
•A-Bing holds merit, particularly double blind, but agree this is balanced by ears acclimatising to longer listens for a true appreciation of the nuances offered by various equipment.
•GIGO is a solid logic counterbalanced at both ends of the chain (i.e. No good sending average signal to highest end headphones any more than best signal to average headphones). Therefore, synergy is also to be considered.
•I, like all humans, will be subjective in my assessments, no matter what logic, testing, 'placebos' or otherwise might be involved in my audio chain. You will likely learn as much about me and my responses to music as you will learn about the equipment in this review.
Approach: Procure and settle on portable rig headphones. Determine highest quality 'end' of the line for testing back down the chain (For my budget this has become the Livewires T1 IEMs and an Apuresound Etymotic Research ER4P). Use best known reference tracks for this, and other decisions, through best portable source at present – iRiver H140/H120 for FLACs and Sony NW-HD5 for 352 KBPS ACTRACs. Experiment over time with intervening amplifiers and interconnects. Confirm various 'combo' decisions by testing on the two portable rigs (FLAC-Transportable, ACTRAC-Portable). Seek overall best 'combos' to achieve highest quality reproduction (synergy) for each of the rigs.
For the purposes of these reviews I purchased most of this equipment with my own hard-earned money, much of it via Head-Fi's excellent 'For Sale' Forums.
For this particular review the Transportable source is FLAC via iRiver H140/H120 optically through iBasso D1 with LT6241 DAC opamp (and later the LT6234 DAC opamp) via FallenAngel silver or Piccolino mini-2-mini through a Supermicro IV to the Livewires T1s. The T1s initially utilised the standard Livewires cable and then the stevenkelby Piccolino Livewires cable. The source for the Portable rig is 352kbps ACTRACs via Sony NW-HD5 through FallenAngel silver or Piccolino mini-2-mini through RSA SR-71 to the Livewires T1s.
The FallenAngel Silver Mini-2-Mini has well beyond 200+ hours burn in, the Livewires/Etys have at least 150+ hours burn in.
Until I heard the Piccolino cable I would have stated that I had found my preferred Mini-2-mini and didn't think recabling the Livewires would make a great difference. Of course, as I now realise, I had built a system around those components as part of the overall audio chain and that changing those two could, indeed, lead to a reassessment
Music used for the review:
Dave Matthews - “Oh”, Some Devil
Diana Krall - 'Temptation', The Girl In The Other Room
Feist - “One Evening”, Let It Die
Holly Williams - “Cheap Parades”, The Ones We Never Know
Jack Johnson - “Wasting Time”, On and On
Keri Noble - “Bartender”, Fearless
Livingston Taylor, “Grandma's Hands”, Good Friends
Rebecca Pidgeon - “Spanish Harlem”, The Raven
Sarah Blasko - “The Garden's End”, What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have
Toto - “I Will Remember”, Tambu
Toto - “Taint Your World”, Falling In Between
Westminster Choir, “Festival Te Deum - Benjamin Britten”, O Magnum Mysterium
Eiji Oue & Minnespta Orchestra, Symphonic Dances No 1s (Non Allegro) – Rachmaninoff (K2HD)
Pepe Romero, Zapateado (K2HD)
What am I comparing?
SQ. That's it. For me that's what it's all about. Sure, I may comment on comparative cable qualities and build but, when it boils down to it, I'll pick up the better SQ cabling anyday (which is why I 'lug' around a portable set up rather than just slide an inconspicuous package of ultra tiny equipment into my pocket as I walk out the door LOL).
First, to be clear, I find any cable/wire in the audio chain to be a component of that chain. Unlike the naysayers I find the differences in connections between equipment to make a difference, sometimes a substantial difference, in the received musical information. To give the naysayers their due, however, the impact of most cables I have heard will be quite dependent on how high a quality the matching equipment is (the higher the quality the greater perceived differences generally) and how different those cables themselves are (e.g. the differences between a lot of copper cables are small compared to the differences between them and a well made silver – similarly the differences between a lot of the silvers can be relatively small
).
In this instance, with the Piccolino, I’m looking at one of only two connecting wires I’ve come across that I would rate with the term ‘Enigma’ (i.e. an inspirational product with inexplicable characteristics). The others are the Audio Tekne ARC 500 RCA Interconnects and I will discuss those in an RCA-2-RCA comparison I’ll publish in the coming months. For now I’ll focus on the Piccolino.
First, the word on the Piccolino is that it comes from Crystal Cables, who focus on minimal cable profile whilst utilising the best possible materials and extremely precise construction. The Piccolino is a more flexible version of their well reviewed Piccolo and it employs a single, hair-fine solid core conductor in its center, drawn from the same silver/gold alloy employed across the Crystal Cables range. They emply gold in the belief that it “fills the voids that would otherwise exist in the silver’s crystal structure, eliminating contaminants or air and leading to higher conductivity and more consistent performance. This is wrapped in an extremely thin layer of tough Kapton insulation, before a pure silver screen is laid over the top. Finally, the coaxial conductors are coated with a thin layer of Teflon. The tiny crosssection of the conductors themselves, combined with the minimal bulk of the dielectrics used is what makes the cables so thin.” (Firm Foundations - The Second Layer, Roy Gregory, HiFi+).
The Piccolino supply I have gained access to has been through stevenkelby, who reported on this cable providing outstanding results for Livewires T1 IEMs (Livewires - California Dreamin' - Page 291 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio).
To be fair to the cable I also got Steve to make me a Piccolino interconnect for each of my portable rigs – need to be true to GIGO where I can. So, before even adding the Piccolino Livewires T1 cable I tried just the Piccolino mini-2-mini with my existing rig arrangements (including with the Livewires T1s with their standard cable).
Firstly let’s get out of the way the factors other than Sound Quality:
Pictures (Click for larger pictures):
The look is bright silver but stylish, as also seen in the images Qusp has provided of his Piccolino LOD – https://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/di...no#post4816783
The build quality is stevenkelby standard – need I say anymore? World Class. Nothing Less.
************
Piccolino Mini-2-Mini
When I received the Piccolino mini-2-minis (one for my transportable rig and the other for the portable) and the Piccolino Livewires cable I decided to clearly:
a. Give them some settling time
b. Stage my introduction of them to my system.
So I set-up my Transportable Rig to get the best possible sound and then I first tried the mini-2-mini with the standard Livewires cable still on. The noticeable change it made (in comparison to my preferred FallenAngel double parallel flat braid of 8 24AWG individual silver wires in Teflon tubing; Termination Neutrik NYS231BG gold plated connectors) was that the Piccolino mini-2-mini has a fuller, richer, a little bass heavy presentation. By itself, combined with the portable and transportable rigs it made the highs and placement micro detail more recessed and distant in the mix; less upfront.
It IS good, but initially I still preferred the sparser sound of the silver ICs I've been using - the detail was that much better - although the change made me realise the richness that that silver’s sparseness leaves behind/out. At times with the silvers I have found myself double checking that the Livewires were fully inserted to get that last ounce of bass - that's the weakness of the silvers and the strength of the Piccolino. And that's also apparent in the vocal reproduction which now, in comparison, sounds thinner on the silver mini-2-mini! (even though it's been more than good for all these months and certainly that well regarded stage beyond the other non-silver mini-2-minis I've tried). However this Piccolino mini-2-mini really has lifted the vocal presence - and that's with the standard Livewires cable!
************
Piccolino Livewires cable
I then added the Livewires Piccolino cable and the sound was enriched even further. Wow to the vocals and more presence returned to the placement and other micro detail. Bass still too heavy (flabby?) though so particular recordings not impressive but others (especially choral) remarkably so.
So then I thought about system synergy and the way the system had been built to the standard Livewires cable and the better (APS) ER4P cable, both of which obviously don't present bass quite so well and therefore benefited from a warmer source. So I then changed from the LT6241 iBasso D1 DAC to the sparser but also incredibly impressive LT6234. And that tempered the bass and added more distinct analytical detail (previously the choice of the LT6241 over the LT6234 had been the first time I'd chosen a less analytical option for improved musicality - it surprised me when I did it but I, correctly, trusted my ears - it was the right synergy with the other equipment. But the enhanced presence at all levels of the audio spectrum brought by the Piccolino cable at both the mini-2-mini and IEM cabling points leads to less need for bass support in the overall system - so the LT6234 opamp is the preferred DAC chip when running from the D1.
).
It's a damn expensive upgrade cable but it certainly does lift the Livewires performance IMHO.
(The other aspect I guess I can confirm is I can fully empathise with Steve's comment that when he went back to the stock cable after these he couldn't listen to it....And I do find it amazing to be writing that after enjoying stock Livewires for so many many months now
)
My initial Piccolino thoughts are in the Livewires thread here –
Livewires - California Dreamin' - Page 317 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio
Livewires - California Dreamin' - Page 317 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio
Since then I've been giving the Piccolino a true workout over 3 weeks of listening time and I think it holds up extremely well in the SQ department. Physically it's also proving more than sufficiently hardy as a daily use IEM cable as well. Good testament both to the character of the cable and, of course, Steve’s world-class cable-building skills.
In comparison to my previous synergy I find the lynchpin characteristic of the Piccolino to be transparency: the tones are just so much tru-er; the voices that much more real. This is how portable audio should sound - sure, what I've been listening to has been very very good: But this is something again. Not quite like a great electrostatic but seriously heading in the right direction.
After trying these now with a variety of rigs and PM discussing with stevenkelby and HeadphoneAddict I can pretty much confirm that it’s a fairly common perception that the Piccolino cable is quite unforgiving in nature - with some synergies of equipment you just can't stop listening (Literally! Both Steve and I have run short on sleep time on numerous occasions now
); yet with other equipment combinations you wonder why you're even bothering.
My take on this characteristic may not be appreciated by some but I have experienced this phenomenon before with high end audio equipment. Call it 'snob nose' or whatever but I think the Piccolino really is a very narrow, very refined piece of equipment that does do, incredibly well, what it was designed to do - deliver as close to 'exactly' the purest form of the audio signal fed to it. If it gets good signal, it'll give good signal. If it gets even just 1% better signal, it'll provide just 1% better signal. In other words I think it's one of those pieces of equipment that is very refined GIGO - you give it less than the very best and you'll hear it's less than the very best - no prisoners.
I cannot explain the way it does it; only describe the effects heard - a bloom of bass, or very 'ordinary' sound, or some other unwanted variance based on either the recording or the equipment feeding it. Like I said, I don’t know how it does it, just that it DOES do it. Because when you send it the very best analytical defined signal then it feeds your Livewires almost EXACTLY (I don't believe anything ever gets it p-e-r-f-e-c-t) what was on the recording. I've also described it this way in my PMs - It raises the level of my portable system such that the recordings can become the obvious 'weak link' in the chain. 1950s productions, both average and exceptional, sound Exactly as they were produced - no common 'forgiving' blend/approach. A good live recording is easily overrun by an outstanding live recording by the same artist of the same song; in other words the production values of the recording become far more prominent: you know exactly what you've got. Unfortunately this can mean you reach the limits of what you might hear off the recording (all too frequently unfortunately) but with some recordings you just keep hitting the 'Repeat' button, such is the revealed clarity, detail, precision and, dare I say it, realism.
Perhaps a single story is best to describe this – one of my test tracks is the Westminster Choir singing “Festival Te Deum” by Benjamin Britten. This is a recording with a lot of distance and width in the miking arrangements. On a great electrostatic rig at home it sounds so realistic, so close to being there: it’s not just the spaciousness and accuracy of locating the voices within that recording; it’s also the tonal accuracy of those voices. Prior to the Piccolino it sounded like a very good recording on my portable rigs – even with the IBasso as DAC feeding the APS ER4Ps; very very good MidFi but not the immersive reality of the home rigs. The Piccolino makes all the difference on the transportable rig. It even makes a substantial step in the right direction just with the portable rig. As I said, it’s immersive – the accuracy of the transportable rig in terms of spaciousness, placement and tonality is so much closer to the best electrostatic home rigs on this.
Obviously other, more compressed, recordings reveal their limits in that way too – they still sound better than the standard cable, but the limits of what they reveal are in the recording’s production values. I love a range of music and this doesn’t detract from enjoying the other recordings but, boy, when I hear all that that choral track can offer…
And using it with the portable rig reveals that the iH140 does indeed have a terrific smooth lineout, and the Supermicro IV compromise of a slightly widened soundstage for very very minimal loss of tonal accuracy (compared to the SR-71) is a great match for IEMs - I think the Supermicro IV and Piccolino recabling, in combination, are what now make my Livewires sound like a set of headphones to me - I know that sounds crazy but it really is like that. And, of course, the transportable arrangement of feeding the i140 optically into the iBasso D1 DAC is that step up that makes bedside listening so very engaging that too frequently I find it's well past 2 am and I really do NEED to force myself to switch the damn thing off
Nothing is perfect, however. My one annoyance with the Piccolino has been, in comparison to the APS ER4Ps, the highs being recessed, lacking that presence the ER4P delivers. (Of course the ER4P bass sounds so flat compared to the Piccolino Livewires so I've still preferred the Piccolino Livewires compromise for most music). (Sidenote - the irony of comparing these two IEMs is its like a mini version of comparing the HE60s, with their weaker bass presence that benefits from the tubes I've rolled into the GES with the bass-rich O2 that just really seems dark and, dare I say it, uninteresting unless it receives HEAPs of power from a brilliant solid state source: still different, and the HE60s provide that more accurate upper end IMHO but the O2s just punch, in a smaller soundstage - like an RSA amp signature - whereas the HE60s are still my 'can't take them off' ESP with a well warmed up GES). Anyway I've tried the Walker Audio Extreme Super Silver Treatment on the Piccolino mini-2-minis and Piccolino Livewires cable (VERY fiddly, delicate work to avoid shorting out the signal path) and the sound signature remains dynamic, complete but with the highs more forward and resolving. BIG SMILES, VERY VERY BIG SMILES - particularly with the transportable but even now on the train as Zeppelin beats their way through Stairway To Heaven. I mean it's just so accurate and engaging and wide and full and I'm blabbering....
I'm not sure the improved highs are quite at the APS ER4P level (my ER4P cables are with Nickyboyo ATM so unable to do A-B comparison.
) but I’ll update this review when I’ve had some time to compare again.
However, I must say that, overall, the Piccolino and E-SST treatment with my transportable has me in a 'settled' position. Although I recognise rigs such as Darkkopi's likely jump a step even further, I think the Piccolino was really the missing 'weak point' link in my transportable/portable audio chain. I acknowledge HeadphoneAddict's belief that the iBasso D1 DAC can also be slightly improved on in my transportable set up but, after all, everything could be improved and, to me, my current set-up is definitely up in the upper ranges of what excellent transportable and portable audio can best sound like.
OVERALL DECISION – Piccolino Cabling:
Does this cable cost too much money? Reactively I’d have to say YES. Reflectively, though, I’d say it depends on what you want out of your system. If you're prepared to notice what each recording really does or doesn't provide and you've got the total synergy of equipment to give the Piccolino the best of that recorded signal, then the Piccolino cables make portable audio very close to, if not actually at, the HiFi level.
But if you’re content to have everything sounding good-very good then stick with the better quality silver cabling with opamps that push the bloom in the bass a bit. Trust me, you'll be happy (I know I was most of the time) and not know what you're missing.
Me? I've made the insane financial commitment and will probably trim down some of the poorer recordings in my frequently played list. But those that remain will move me from just 'listening to music on the train' to 'experiencing all that the professional musicians, producers and others in the recording process really wanted me to hear’. Not as good as my favourite home electrostatic rigs but a definite good taste of that level of fidelity in a truly portable/transportable set up.
So it has been a very good, although too expensive upgrade and it hints that it is a stronger link in the chain than the IEMs it is serving
So, perhaps with a triple (or more) driver IEM it might deliver even more, but I'm afraid the only way I'll be getting UE11s is if someone else paid for them.
. And, quite seriously, I think I've explored as many fractional improvements as I wish to right now. Even if I gained another 0.5% (and I seriously do believe that's how fractional it'd be now) I think I'd prefer to maintain the synergy and just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
So the Crystal Cables Piccolino cable has become a real deal-sealer for me. WAY WAY too expensive/overpriced but it, finally, brought the Livewires performance to an excellent level. And, as the overall resultant sound is delightful to me I figure that the Livewires cable was the last piece of equipment in my portable audio chain that was holding back all the sound I could be getting (unbelievable but true!).
So, yes, Steve (stevenkelby), although my bank balance isn't, I, the customer who that bank balance serves, am happy.
And, quite happily, for now, I'll promote the Piccolino Livewires as my ongoing regular preferred IEM (maybe with occasional return to the APS ER4P for orchestral works...just because afaik atm it delivers those highs that touch better.
).
Best Regards.
Ian.
I recognise:
•A-Bing holds merit, particularly double blind, but agree this is balanced by ears acclimatising to longer listens for a true appreciation of the nuances offered by various equipment.
•GIGO is a solid logic counterbalanced at both ends of the chain (i.e. No good sending average signal to highest end headphones any more than best signal to average headphones). Therefore, synergy is also to be considered.
•I, like all humans, will be subjective in my assessments, no matter what logic, testing, 'placebos' or otherwise might be involved in my audio chain. You will likely learn as much about me and my responses to music as you will learn about the equipment in this review.
Approach: Procure and settle on portable rig headphones. Determine highest quality 'end' of the line for testing back down the chain (For my budget this has become the Livewires T1 IEMs and an Apuresound Etymotic Research ER4P). Use best known reference tracks for this, and other decisions, through best portable source at present – iRiver H140/H120 for FLACs and Sony NW-HD5 for 352 KBPS ACTRACs. Experiment over time with intervening amplifiers and interconnects. Confirm various 'combo' decisions by testing on the two portable rigs (FLAC-Transportable, ACTRAC-Portable). Seek overall best 'combos' to achieve highest quality reproduction (synergy) for each of the rigs.
For the purposes of these reviews I purchased most of this equipment with my own hard-earned money, much of it via Head-Fi's excellent 'For Sale' Forums.
For this particular review the Transportable source is FLAC via iRiver H140/H120 optically through iBasso D1 with LT6241 DAC opamp (and later the LT6234 DAC opamp) via FallenAngel silver or Piccolino mini-2-mini through a Supermicro IV to the Livewires T1s. The T1s initially utilised the standard Livewires cable and then the stevenkelby Piccolino Livewires cable. The source for the Portable rig is 352kbps ACTRACs via Sony NW-HD5 through FallenAngel silver or Piccolino mini-2-mini through RSA SR-71 to the Livewires T1s.
The FallenAngel Silver Mini-2-Mini has well beyond 200+ hours burn in, the Livewires/Etys have at least 150+ hours burn in.
Until I heard the Piccolino cable I would have stated that I had found my preferred Mini-2-mini and didn't think recabling the Livewires would make a great difference. Of course, as I now realise, I had built a system around those components as part of the overall audio chain and that changing those two could, indeed, lead to a reassessment
Music used for the review:
Dave Matthews - “Oh”, Some Devil
Diana Krall - 'Temptation', The Girl In The Other Room
Feist - “One Evening”, Let It Die
Holly Williams - “Cheap Parades”, The Ones We Never Know
Jack Johnson - “Wasting Time”, On and On
Keri Noble - “Bartender”, Fearless
Livingston Taylor, “Grandma's Hands”, Good Friends
Rebecca Pidgeon - “Spanish Harlem”, The Raven
Sarah Blasko - “The Garden's End”, What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have
Toto - “I Will Remember”, Tambu
Toto - “Taint Your World”, Falling In Between
Westminster Choir, “Festival Te Deum - Benjamin Britten”, O Magnum Mysterium
Eiji Oue & Minnespta Orchestra, Symphonic Dances No 1s (Non Allegro) – Rachmaninoff (K2HD)
Pepe Romero, Zapateado (K2HD)
What am I comparing?
SQ. That's it. For me that's what it's all about. Sure, I may comment on comparative cable qualities and build but, when it boils down to it, I'll pick up the better SQ cabling anyday (which is why I 'lug' around a portable set up rather than just slide an inconspicuous package of ultra tiny equipment into my pocket as I walk out the door LOL).
First, to be clear, I find any cable/wire in the audio chain to be a component of that chain. Unlike the naysayers I find the differences in connections between equipment to make a difference, sometimes a substantial difference, in the received musical information. To give the naysayers their due, however, the impact of most cables I have heard will be quite dependent on how high a quality the matching equipment is (the higher the quality the greater perceived differences generally) and how different those cables themselves are (e.g. the differences between a lot of copper cables are small compared to the differences between them and a well made silver – similarly the differences between a lot of the silvers can be relatively small
In this instance, with the Piccolino, I’m looking at one of only two connecting wires I’ve come across that I would rate with the term ‘Enigma’ (i.e. an inspirational product with inexplicable characteristics). The others are the Audio Tekne ARC 500 RCA Interconnects and I will discuss those in an RCA-2-RCA comparison I’ll publish in the coming months. For now I’ll focus on the Piccolino.
First, the word on the Piccolino is that it comes from Crystal Cables, who focus on minimal cable profile whilst utilising the best possible materials and extremely precise construction. The Piccolino is a more flexible version of their well reviewed Piccolo and it employs a single, hair-fine solid core conductor in its center, drawn from the same silver/gold alloy employed across the Crystal Cables range. They emply gold in the belief that it “fills the voids that would otherwise exist in the silver’s crystal structure, eliminating contaminants or air and leading to higher conductivity and more consistent performance. This is wrapped in an extremely thin layer of tough Kapton insulation, before a pure silver screen is laid over the top. Finally, the coaxial conductors are coated with a thin layer of Teflon. The tiny crosssection of the conductors themselves, combined with the minimal bulk of the dielectrics used is what makes the cables so thin.” (Firm Foundations - The Second Layer, Roy Gregory, HiFi+).
The Piccolino supply I have gained access to has been through stevenkelby, who reported on this cable providing outstanding results for Livewires T1 IEMs (Livewires - California Dreamin' - Page 291 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio).
To be fair to the cable I also got Steve to make me a Piccolino interconnect for each of my portable rigs – need to be true to GIGO where I can. So, before even adding the Piccolino Livewires T1 cable I tried just the Piccolino mini-2-mini with my existing rig arrangements (including with the Livewires T1s with their standard cable).
Firstly let’s get out of the way the factors other than Sound Quality:
Pictures (Click for larger pictures):
The look is bright silver but stylish, as also seen in the images Qusp has provided of his Piccolino LOD – https://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/di...no#post4816783
The build quality is stevenkelby standard – need I say anymore? World Class. Nothing Less.
************
Piccolino Mini-2-Mini
When I received the Piccolino mini-2-minis (one for my transportable rig and the other for the portable) and the Piccolino Livewires cable I decided to clearly:
a. Give them some settling time
b. Stage my introduction of them to my system.
So I set-up my Transportable Rig to get the best possible sound and then I first tried the mini-2-mini with the standard Livewires cable still on. The noticeable change it made (in comparison to my preferred FallenAngel double parallel flat braid of 8 24AWG individual silver wires in Teflon tubing; Termination Neutrik NYS231BG gold plated connectors) was that the Piccolino mini-2-mini has a fuller, richer, a little bass heavy presentation. By itself, combined with the portable and transportable rigs it made the highs and placement micro detail more recessed and distant in the mix; less upfront.
It IS good, but initially I still preferred the sparser sound of the silver ICs I've been using - the detail was that much better - although the change made me realise the richness that that silver’s sparseness leaves behind/out. At times with the silvers I have found myself double checking that the Livewires were fully inserted to get that last ounce of bass - that's the weakness of the silvers and the strength of the Piccolino. And that's also apparent in the vocal reproduction which now, in comparison, sounds thinner on the silver mini-2-mini! (even though it's been more than good for all these months and certainly that well regarded stage beyond the other non-silver mini-2-minis I've tried). However this Piccolino mini-2-mini really has lifted the vocal presence - and that's with the standard Livewires cable!
************
Piccolino Livewires cable
I then added the Livewires Piccolino cable and the sound was enriched even further. Wow to the vocals and more presence returned to the placement and other micro detail. Bass still too heavy (flabby?) though so particular recordings not impressive but others (especially choral) remarkably so.
So then I thought about system synergy and the way the system had been built to the standard Livewires cable and the better (APS) ER4P cable, both of which obviously don't present bass quite so well and therefore benefited from a warmer source. So I then changed from the LT6241 iBasso D1 DAC to the sparser but also incredibly impressive LT6234. And that tempered the bass and added more distinct analytical detail (previously the choice of the LT6241 over the LT6234 had been the first time I'd chosen a less analytical option for improved musicality - it surprised me when I did it but I, correctly, trusted my ears - it was the right synergy with the other equipment. But the enhanced presence at all levels of the audio spectrum brought by the Piccolino cable at both the mini-2-mini and IEM cabling points leads to less need for bass support in the overall system - so the LT6234 opamp is the preferred DAC chip when running from the D1.
It's a damn expensive upgrade cable but it certainly does lift the Livewires performance IMHO.
(The other aspect I guess I can confirm is I can fully empathise with Steve's comment that when he went back to the stock cable after these he couldn't listen to it....And I do find it amazing to be writing that after enjoying stock Livewires for so many many months now
My initial Piccolino thoughts are in the Livewires thread here –
Livewires - California Dreamin' - Page 317 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio
Livewires - California Dreamin' - Page 317 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio
Since then I've been giving the Piccolino a true workout over 3 weeks of listening time and I think it holds up extremely well in the SQ department. Physically it's also proving more than sufficiently hardy as a daily use IEM cable as well. Good testament both to the character of the cable and, of course, Steve’s world-class cable-building skills.
In comparison to my previous synergy I find the lynchpin characteristic of the Piccolino to be transparency: the tones are just so much tru-er; the voices that much more real. This is how portable audio should sound - sure, what I've been listening to has been very very good: But this is something again. Not quite like a great electrostatic but seriously heading in the right direction.
After trying these now with a variety of rigs and PM discussing with stevenkelby and HeadphoneAddict I can pretty much confirm that it’s a fairly common perception that the Piccolino cable is quite unforgiving in nature - with some synergies of equipment you just can't stop listening (Literally! Both Steve and I have run short on sleep time on numerous occasions now
My take on this characteristic may not be appreciated by some but I have experienced this phenomenon before with high end audio equipment. Call it 'snob nose' or whatever but I think the Piccolino really is a very narrow, very refined piece of equipment that does do, incredibly well, what it was designed to do - deliver as close to 'exactly' the purest form of the audio signal fed to it. If it gets good signal, it'll give good signal. If it gets even just 1% better signal, it'll provide just 1% better signal. In other words I think it's one of those pieces of equipment that is very refined GIGO - you give it less than the very best and you'll hear it's less than the very best - no prisoners.
I cannot explain the way it does it; only describe the effects heard - a bloom of bass, or very 'ordinary' sound, or some other unwanted variance based on either the recording or the equipment feeding it. Like I said, I don’t know how it does it, just that it DOES do it. Because when you send it the very best analytical defined signal then it feeds your Livewires almost EXACTLY (I don't believe anything ever gets it p-e-r-f-e-c-t) what was on the recording. I've also described it this way in my PMs - It raises the level of my portable system such that the recordings can become the obvious 'weak link' in the chain. 1950s productions, both average and exceptional, sound Exactly as they were produced - no common 'forgiving' blend/approach. A good live recording is easily overrun by an outstanding live recording by the same artist of the same song; in other words the production values of the recording become far more prominent: you know exactly what you've got. Unfortunately this can mean you reach the limits of what you might hear off the recording (all too frequently unfortunately) but with some recordings you just keep hitting the 'Repeat' button, such is the revealed clarity, detail, precision and, dare I say it, realism.
Perhaps a single story is best to describe this – one of my test tracks is the Westminster Choir singing “Festival Te Deum” by Benjamin Britten. This is a recording with a lot of distance and width in the miking arrangements. On a great electrostatic rig at home it sounds so realistic, so close to being there: it’s not just the spaciousness and accuracy of locating the voices within that recording; it’s also the tonal accuracy of those voices. Prior to the Piccolino it sounded like a very good recording on my portable rigs – even with the IBasso as DAC feeding the APS ER4Ps; very very good MidFi but not the immersive reality of the home rigs. The Piccolino makes all the difference on the transportable rig. It even makes a substantial step in the right direction just with the portable rig. As I said, it’s immersive – the accuracy of the transportable rig in terms of spaciousness, placement and tonality is so much closer to the best electrostatic home rigs on this.
Obviously other, more compressed, recordings reveal their limits in that way too – they still sound better than the standard cable, but the limits of what they reveal are in the recording’s production values. I love a range of music and this doesn’t detract from enjoying the other recordings but, boy, when I hear all that that choral track can offer…
And using it with the portable rig reveals that the iH140 does indeed have a terrific smooth lineout, and the Supermicro IV compromise of a slightly widened soundstage for very very minimal loss of tonal accuracy (compared to the SR-71) is a great match for IEMs - I think the Supermicro IV and Piccolino recabling, in combination, are what now make my Livewires sound like a set of headphones to me - I know that sounds crazy but it really is like that. And, of course, the transportable arrangement of feeding the i140 optically into the iBasso D1 DAC is that step up that makes bedside listening so very engaging that too frequently I find it's well past 2 am and I really do NEED to force myself to switch the damn thing off
Nothing is perfect, however. My one annoyance with the Piccolino has been, in comparison to the APS ER4Ps, the highs being recessed, lacking that presence the ER4P delivers. (Of course the ER4P bass sounds so flat compared to the Piccolino Livewires so I've still preferred the Piccolino Livewires compromise for most music). (Sidenote - the irony of comparing these two IEMs is its like a mini version of comparing the HE60s, with their weaker bass presence that benefits from the tubes I've rolled into the GES with the bass-rich O2 that just really seems dark and, dare I say it, uninteresting unless it receives HEAPs of power from a brilliant solid state source: still different, and the HE60s provide that more accurate upper end IMHO but the O2s just punch, in a smaller soundstage - like an RSA amp signature - whereas the HE60s are still my 'can't take them off' ESP with a well warmed up GES). Anyway I've tried the Walker Audio Extreme Super Silver Treatment on the Piccolino mini-2-minis and Piccolino Livewires cable (VERY fiddly, delicate work to avoid shorting out the signal path) and the sound signature remains dynamic, complete but with the highs more forward and resolving. BIG SMILES, VERY VERY BIG SMILES - particularly with the transportable but even now on the train as Zeppelin beats their way through Stairway To Heaven. I mean it's just so accurate and engaging and wide and full and I'm blabbering....
I'm not sure the improved highs are quite at the APS ER4P level (my ER4P cables are with Nickyboyo ATM so unable to do A-B comparison.
However, I must say that, overall, the Piccolino and E-SST treatment with my transportable has me in a 'settled' position. Although I recognise rigs such as Darkkopi's likely jump a step even further, I think the Piccolino was really the missing 'weak point' link in my transportable/portable audio chain. I acknowledge HeadphoneAddict's belief that the iBasso D1 DAC can also be slightly improved on in my transportable set up but, after all, everything could be improved and, to me, my current set-up is definitely up in the upper ranges of what excellent transportable and portable audio can best sound like.
OVERALL DECISION – Piccolino Cabling:
Does this cable cost too much money? Reactively I’d have to say YES. Reflectively, though, I’d say it depends on what you want out of your system. If you're prepared to notice what each recording really does or doesn't provide and you've got the total synergy of equipment to give the Piccolino the best of that recorded signal, then the Piccolino cables make portable audio very close to, if not actually at, the HiFi level.
But if you’re content to have everything sounding good-very good then stick with the better quality silver cabling with opamps that push the bloom in the bass a bit. Trust me, you'll be happy (I know I was most of the time) and not know what you're missing.
Me? I've made the insane financial commitment and will probably trim down some of the poorer recordings in my frequently played list. But those that remain will move me from just 'listening to music on the train' to 'experiencing all that the professional musicians, producers and others in the recording process really wanted me to hear’. Not as good as my favourite home electrostatic rigs but a definite good taste of that level of fidelity in a truly portable/transportable set up.
So it has been a very good, although too expensive upgrade and it hints that it is a stronger link in the chain than the IEMs it is serving
So the Crystal Cables Piccolino cable has become a real deal-sealer for me. WAY WAY too expensive/overpriced but it, finally, brought the Livewires performance to an excellent level. And, as the overall resultant sound is delightful to me I figure that the Livewires cable was the last piece of equipment in my portable audio chain that was holding back all the sound I could be getting (unbelievable but true!).
So, yes, Steve (stevenkelby), although my bank balance isn't, I, the customer who that bank balance serves, am happy.
And, quite happily, for now, I'll promote the Piccolino Livewires as my ongoing regular preferred IEM (maybe with occasional return to the APS ER4P for orchestral works...just because afaik atm it delivers those highs that touch better.
Best Regards.
Ian.
