[MizMoxie]

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just got it now, now to some testing. only headphone and player I have in my hands right now are the Clip+ and M80s. so we shall see this first...
 
works good, I dont dare to say great yet but minor hissing, only noticeable when there is no music and really low hissing.
 
with clip volume at 50% I can go ZO volume all lvl and it is loud but still at a safe volume. the bass boost does little, I thought there was a more noticeable difference but so far, it ads body but thats it.
 
nice feeling to the touch btw, I wouldnt have a problem pair this with an ipod, no danger of scratches.
 

Disconnect the cable between the player and ZO. Do you still hear any hiss?
 

 

[metalgear]

have they issued serial numbers to identify which units need to be fixed?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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Just got my revised v2 from the mail.  I've only had it for 15mins so too early to give impressions, but I can say that I'm running it through my iPhone 4's LOD to a pair of iems and the complaints about the LOD volume and hiss have been fixed.

What volume level (as in how many clicks from the lowest level) on the revised ZO2 do you find "normal" when running with LOD and paired with your IEMs? Do you get any distortions? How well does contour level adjustment work when used as a LOD? <- I bet these are the interesting questions for most people around here as previously it hasn't been possible to use it with LOD so.
 

 

[JamesMcProgger]

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Disconnect the cable between the player and ZO. Do you still hear any hiss?
 

yes, still hiss with only the ZO+phones, no player or even interconnect cable. I also have the triple.fi 10 here, will try with them after this song ends.
 
hey nice to see you back by the way, I thought you had abandoned us 

 
edit: clip+ > ZO2> TF10 = hiss. but the volumes are OK if I dont raise the Zo too much. not a big deal, hiss might bother some, not me really, it is not there with music. at least now, will consider it again later after a couple of beers. and the bass boost is totally noticeable now.

 

[lee730]

Will be sending out my ZO2 today. Looking forward to a non-hissing version of the item. This will be a very good amp after the fix.

 

[MizMoxie]

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yes, still hiss with only the ZO+phones, no player or even interconnect cable. I also have the triple.fi 10 here, will try with them after this song ends.
 
hey nice to see you back by the way, I thought you had abandoned us 

 
edit: clip+ > ZO2> TF10 = hiss. but the volumes are OK if I dont raise the Zo too much. not a big deal, hiss might bother some, not me really, it is not there with music. at least now, will consider it again later after a couple of beers. and the bass boost is totally noticeable now.

Oh, yea, I totally didn't realize you had the "pre-fixed version". Sorry! But glad to hear your liking it!
 
And I haven't abandoned you guys! Promise! 

 

[ChrisSC]

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What volume level (as in how many clicks from the lowest level) on the revised ZO2 do you find "normal" when running with LOD and paired with your IEMs? Do you get any distortions? How well does contour level adjustment work when used as a LOD? <- I bet these are the interesting questions for most people around here as previously it hasn't been possible to use it with LOD so.
 

HonestIy I have really sensitive iems (westone es5s), and so I don't know if its because of them or the zo2, but the volume pot could be much better.  I feel like anything past maybe the 10th click could cause hearing damage if used for a while.  Also, I can't do any low volume critical listening while amping through the zo, as even the first 'click' puts my iPhone4 at a moderate listening level.  So for me, in my short hour or so of listening, my listening range is somewhere between 1-5 out of the possible 32 clicks.
 
The bass isn't as tight as I expected, but I expect that to improve as my unit burns in.
 
No distortions to note, and again- even with no song playing, no hiss at all.  Also, even with my zo2 on top of  my iPhone4 not in airplane mode, I don't hear any radio frequency interference, which I'm really impressed with.
 
As far as contour adjustments, it still feels like the steps aren't even, but incremental in maybe a platform way, such that there aren' that many increases in bass while in the green or in the red, but mostly in the yellow (this could be just my perception- I could be wrong about this- I haven't really been testing the bass boost because its a pain to click 32x to get from red high to green low bass).
 
Hope this helps,
Chris
 

 

[ChrisSC]

Also, I just reread what I wrote, and if it came across like I'm disappointed with the zo or not happy with the bass its putting out- not true.  I'm loving it!

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

OK thanks for the feedback, well if you can use lvl 1-5 with the most sensitive IEMs it should be "fine", we're after all talking IEMs with a LOD setup which won't need any further amping to start sounding loud. I think only if switching for a analog potentiometer volume pot you could possibly make it more appropriate since if you make it fit too much for sensitive IEMs on a digital 32 volume step control you might instead run into issues when running a bit more demanding headphones (or it causes issues with volume levels when you use the headphone jack instead) and try to get proper volume lvls instead or if you like make too much of a difference between lowest and max level then that means "per step" the volume has to increase more too which is also an issue if it results into an "unsmooth" volume control that has too big change per step. Ofc you could vary the steps so it doesn't adjust it evenly for the lower and higher steps for example but that's probably a bit more tricky to get it right.
 
As far as the contour levels goes, well it varies a lot from headphone/IEM to another how you percieve the boosted bass. My Panasonic HTF600 doesn't give much change in bass response above 5th or so level while my XB500 happily gets stronger bass almost to the max lvl... it's crazy...

 

[DigitalFreak]

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OK thanks for the feedback, well if you can use lvl 1-5 with the most sensitive IEMs it should be "fine", we're after all talking IEMs with a LOD setup which won't need any amping to start sounding loud. I think only if switching for a analog potentiometer volume pot you could possibly make it more appropriate since if you make it fit too much for sensitive IEMs on a digital 32 volume step control you might instead run into issues when running a bit more demanding headphones and try to get proper volume lvls instead.
 
As far as the contour levels goes, well it varies a lot from headphone/IEM to another how you percieve the boosted bass. My Panasonic HT600 doesn't give much change in bass response above 5th or so level while my XB500 happily gets stronger bass almost to the max lvl... it's crazy...

You're using your ZO to boost bass on a XB500?!?!?! Dude the XB500 is a little bass monster, why the heck would you want even more bass when the lows are already running over all the other frequencies?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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You're using your ZO to boost bass on a XB500?!?!?! Dude the XB500 is a little bass monster, why the heck would you want even more bass when the lows are already running over all the other frequencies?

It sounds great with ZO on the lowest level, well on ZO1 that's the first boosted level or the 2nd level (often I even go one higher level) as the way ZO / smartvektor works like I get a boost in the whole frequency range not just in bass which is a rather "even" boost across the whole frequency response range at the lowest levels which results in better percieved balance why it makes my XB500 sound more balanced (mids and highs sticks out a bit better) and it results in an overall more dynamic and forward sound as well as bringing slightly enhanced soundstage which are aspects that I like (I really love forward / dynamic sound). Got slight hissing with XB500 with ZO2 as it's one of the most if not the most sensitive headphone around so I haven't used it with that but HTF600 + ZO2 sounds great.
 
I wonder if RMA'ing covers my unit or not as I won mine. xD MizMoxie please check email when you have time as I had something to ask/suggest, thanks.
 

 

[7swell]

My ZO2 arrived today and I am happy to report that I hear no pop on power on/off and no hiss (max volume, disconnected from source, with UM Miracle). I haven't listened to it long enough to really get some impression of the sound but it has been fun playing around with.

 

[louisnomad]

Now I know why my ZO2 was on customs... Cindy sent me a box that could easily fit 8 ZOs... The guys over ther didn't even bother to open the box... they just wrote a bill to me and now i'm almost screwd with the amount this thing is costing till now... well, it is here... going to try it for the very first time...

 

[louisnomad]

 
First impressions:
 
Hiss:
 
It is there, but less than I thought. With music going on it is almost impossible to hear. Im using it with J3 HO, max volume and adjusting the volume to my ears through J3. I can live with this hiss, I think... Will try it more during the weekend while traveling with my band to play few gigs...
 
Volume Switch:
 
As I'm using it with HO, is not of a problem to me. It doesn't matter if the gain is too high.
 
Pop noise:
 
Yes, it is no there, at least not in the way people say it is with ZO v1. I can hear weird noises in it's place... When you turn it of, sound goes away and come back to normal volume setings on J3. But when you turn it on... lol... Geez, I thought it was going to destroy the BA inside my A151... A very distorted noise was growing up till it became the normal bassy sound of ZO2... It was really scary! After that i tried a couple of times and now i think it is the normal way it works. I wish it wasn't that way... 
 
Sound:
 
So far, with just 5 to 10 minutes listening time, I think I nlike it... People say that it will improve after burn in (lol, I thought that only headphones and IEMs could benefit from burn in, as they have moving parts to build the sound... In my heart I still belive the AMP burn in is just to our ears, as they get accostumet to the sound). Whatever... I'll let it run during the weekend and will listen to it as much as I can... Let's see what happens after that...
 
I'll post an update here when i come back from the gigs...

 

[burtomr]

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Sound:
 
People say that it will improve after burn in (lol, I thought that only headphones and IEMs could benefit from burn in, as they have moving parts to build the sound... In my heart I still belive the AMP burn in is just to our ears, as they get accostumet to the sound).

My ZO2 seems to "warm up" after a few minutes of on time. The highs and lows get more spacious after a few minutes of use. The warm up time/quality repeats daily and I do not hear a SQ change when the ZO2 is off, thinking it might be my IEM's, or my source warming up.