Upgrade: Head-Direct’s RE1 vs JAYS q-Jays (vs something else?)

[ewalters]

I'm a newb and as a newb dumb questions are what I'm best at (my apologies in advance).

I currently own a set of im616's, cMoyBB2 amp, and Creative Zen 4GB. I am looking for an upgrade, but have very little idea where to start or what to do first. I'm keen to get a D2, XM4 amp (or similar in the $150 price range), and a set of Head-Direct’s RE1 or JAYS q-Jays.

I only have about $300 to upgrade with and realise that my gear isn't great to be starting with (so no money selling existing components) and my budget isn't big enough to get anything good.

With the setup I have, are new phones that are in a class above what I currently have where I should be looking, or are there bigger benefits to be had by upgrading other components such as my player or my amp?

 

[st4r0c3an]

If you liked the im616s you will definitely enjoy the q-jays.

 

[ewalters]

I would say that I became happy with the im616's once they were amped.

Without the amp they sounded very flat (which is still a sound I don't mind when I am listening to a classical piece or or a paraliminal / holosync etc, but for listening to dance music I found this lacking). The bass boost certainly helped with this but I still prefer the amped sound to the unamped sound even with the bass boost off.

I have also used a 75ohm resistor as the im616's have low impedance, but this doesn't seem to have done much since the amp was fully burned in. I don't know what I expected this to do, I guess I was hoping it may help the sound, like the ER4P-24, but this doesn't appear to have occurred (stupid newb disease?).

 

[ClieOS]

If your XM4 has AD8620 in it, than it will have really good synergy with RE1. If you are planning to pay > $200 for q-JAYS, than I'll suggest you take a look at the SA6 for only $200 now from SoundEarphones.com