Hi Neal,

Sorry for the late reply, last week was a bit hectic, but I did promise and I forgot, so sorry. Anyway, about the amp situation, I had a go in my wife Mercedes and the results were interesting. As we discussed, on its own with the 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable that I got from who knows where, my Nano struggles to produce any real volume. As for my system, I’ve got a Blaupunkt Velocity 2Go 5, so I’m good to go.

Blaupunkt Velocity 2Go 5 speaker system for both in and outside of the car. Brilliant!

Belkin cable upgrade

The first thing I did was to switch the rubbish cable for my Belkin 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, and the results were surprising. The difference was very noticeable, and the sound was as clean cut as the design of the cable. There was also an increase in volume.

The “Royal” Amp

iPod, C&C mini crystal 6″ mini-to-mini cable into the amp, Belkin mini to mini cable from the amp into the Mercedes jack. There was an increase in the depth of bass, and the volume, however I feel it was “overkill”. The amp can pump out more than the standard speakers can handle, even with the bass switch turned to the lowest settings if you’re not careful the speakers will wave a white flag. The speakers can handle the Belkin upgrade well enough.

FiiO E5 amp

Sorry no pics the battery ran out.

The FiiO E5 amp was another good choice, but again, the speakers began to show that they’d had enough, not as much as the Royal amp.

Conclusion

The Royal amp will provide a decent increase in volume. I didn’t analyse the sound to the standard set up. All I’d say is; if you want clean bass at a reasonable level, the Royal amp will do it. Personally, the Belkin cable will be a good way to clean the sound up and add a touch more volume.

Welcome To Our New Shop, headphonedeals.com

It’s the new headphonedeals shop. Headphones, amps, earphones, IEMs, cables, software, downloads, speakers, yes speakers and headphone modifications. It’s all there. plus links to headphone modifications.

Serious sound upgrade for the price of a happy meal!

Simple, but serious sound upgrade for your MP, laptop or PC.

For those of you who’ve never even contemplating buying an amp, or if you just want a quick and easy boost for your headphones and earphones, there’s nothing cheaper or better (for the price) than the Fiio E3 amp! I’ve just been burning in the Klipsch Custom 1 earphones, and I’ve plugged them into the Fiio E3 and the difference in weight and scale is very noticeable.

Starting from $3.99, I’ll slap you if you don’t buy one!

I also bough some rechargeable AAA batteries to go with them. I’m listening to Enya’s new album “And Winter Came” - White Is In The Winter Night (the best song from the album) with the Klipsch are far more happier with the Fiio than without. The Fiio amp, is a nice booster. The sound is more forward, but and fairly even across the frequency range. But for $3.99 it’s a deal of the decade. Just buy one!

FiiO E5 is out there somewhere

Source: slashgear.com

Which High-End IEM’s Would You recommend?

I’m looking at the Shure SE310 or SE530’s

No matter how much I loved my Stax-SR001, Ultrasone Proline 750, the Sennheiser HD650, they aren’t as convenient In Ear Monitors, I get that, I get the argument. Its not as though I can slip my HD650’s in my pocket, and I regaled the Stax-SR001 with so much humble respect, that I didn’t dare take them outside.

The Ultrasone fair no better really. Good though they are, its not as though they small enough to go unnoticed on your local bus service. No, The only highend-ish headphones that can be considered portable, are the Sennheiser HD25-1’s.

IEM’s = Compact Convenience, I get it!

above: Super.fi size comparison. Getting into the box, sliced my finger

I understand that IEM’s offer a good portable option, but what about the sound ? I bought the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5eb, and the results were disastrous. They were far too big and heavy. the cable that you hook over your ears, acted as cheese wire, cutting into the top of my ears. I’m sure the weight of the earphones didn’t help with this.

However, the biggest problem was the sound. Maybe, because I’m not used to the dual speaker set up, but the midrange was far out of sync with the bass and treble. Even playing the same artist, you just couldn’t predict if the singer was going o be two blocks away or screaming down your ears. I didn’t take long to realize that the UE 5EB’s weren’t for me, and so I downgraded (in price terms) to the Metro.fi 2’s (pictured below), and UE gained my trust once more. Don’t get me wrong, the bass was the cleanest and almost the deepest I’ve experienced, but a slight movement, and that’s all lost.

Metro.fi 2, ipod shuffle, IASUS Mobile amp

Now I’m Thinking About Shure SE310 or SE530

Hands up I’ve never tried a pair of Shure, which is probably why I want to try them. Reading many reviews on ebay and headfi, here are, what I see are the main pros and cons of both the Shure SE310 and the SE530:

Pros:

• High degree of clarity
• Midrange and treble strength
  
• Serious loved by Musicians/Professionals

Cons

• Serious issues with the cable. This is covered by Shure’s warranty, provided you have bought from an authorized dealer and you have the receipt
  
• Bass is in short supply
• Some feel the price is too high
• Issues with fitting

On first impressions, you might feel justified in thinking that the Shure’s might be a risky investment, but I’m getting curious about how they sound. Some reviews throw up usual reactions. Everyone will have their own experience, and not all of them positive. Comments like these are not uncommon:

• Sound quality not that good for the Price
• Quality problems
• fitting problems

Lack Of Bass? Not With The “Royal’ Amp

The lack of bass doesn’t really put me off. I’m sure he “Royal” amp from Penguin amps will help with that. With the ability to adjust the bass response, it turned my Sennheiser HD650’s into bass bins. The sheer bass weight and control is awesome.

Shure SE310 SE530 Build Quality Issues

Apparently this is an issue which Shure hasn’t really addressed, preferring to replace your earphones, providing you can prove that you’ve bought them from an authorized dealer. So no buying used Shure’s from ebay folks! I’m looking at buying from amazon or a used pair from amazon “warehouse deals”.

Amazon warehouse deals are covered by the Shure warranty!

I rang Shure UK, to ask if buying a used pair from amazon “warehouse deals”. Click here for more info on warehouse deals.
The gentleman said that if you buy a “Used pair” from amazon “warehouse deals” then you’re covered by the Shure Warranty, few! Personally, when I do buy, I’ll get mine from amazon, but look on the Shure website for a list of dealers, before you buy, because I think that the warranty might come I handy. Some reviews say that they’ve had to changed theirs 4-5 times because of cable failure.

Why Shure can’t get its act together and create detachable cables or something, is beyond me. But if they’re willing to exchange them, then the warranty is worth its weight in gold. And word is; Shure’s customer service is top notch.

So, Should I go for it?

Should I brave the new world, and embrace a pair of Shure’s? I was going to start of lightly and try the SE310’s first. I’m also considering going the whole hog and get a set of custom molds ear sleeves as well. But I also fear that the Shure’s, like the UE super.fi 5EB, will be too heavy and too big. Problems with fitting seems to be an inherent problem with IEM’s and so it doesn’t put me off. But what about the sound? Will they be sound out of sync, like the UE’s? if you’ve got a comment, then I’d love to hear from you.

Headphones tested on my fellow Drawing and Image Making Students.

This wasn’t supposed to be a test, but with most of the headphones being around the same (UK) price range, I thought it would be interesting to see which headphones they would take home. The headphone list includes:

Portable cans

Sennheier PX100
Grado iGrado
Ultrasone iCans

Full size cans - all around the £40

Kam KHP 1500
Denon AH-D301
Sennheiser HD212
AKG K518

High end

Sennheiser HD650 - they all loved them

Headphone amp

Cmoy - Penguin Royal Amp - nice piece of kit!

Natalie

Natalie liked the Sennheiser HD650’s of course, and the Denon AH-D301. She also took a liking to the Grado iGrado’s. The Kam KHP 1500 headphones were a bit too heavy (weight) for her. Can’t remember what Natalie said about the AKG’s.

Jamie

Jamie loved the Kam KHP 1500 headphones, and spent most of his time with them. He said that he preferred the bass on his Sennheiser HD202, than the HD212. The AKG K518 were too heavy in the bass for him. Jamie didn’t think much of the Denon’s. But one surprise was that Jamie liked the Ultrasone iCans!

Lee

Lee liked the AKG’s.

Sara - a bit camera shy

Sara was content with just hammering out her music!

Steve of Apex Jr. has sent news of a sale of some Alesis Switcher units. Those have been used by Alesis to demo their reverberation effect boxes. The Switcher has a stereo input via two RCA jacks, a front mono jack (good for a guitar player), and outputs to 4 TS jacks and two separate headphone amplifier outputs (two full-size jacks).

This could be a really useful piece of kit for a small studio; two people could listen to a mix through headphones, or, say, a keyboard player and a guitar player could jam together without using speakers.

More details in this forum thread; the Apex Jr. website doesn’t have this sale listed yet.

Graham Slee Bargains

As I can see there are two Graham Slee amps that we all should be ‘chomping at the bit’ for. The Solo and the Voyager portable amp (going for a very reasonable starting bid I hasten to add). The Voyager in particular, is staring at £90.00, which is nearly half the retail price….. and there’s no one biding yet, which is a surprise to me. “Get in there!” I say.

As for the Solo, That retails for £333.49 and the offer starts at £250.00. In Graham Slee terms, an absolute bargain!

I’ve always been curious about the Project head box amp. On the seen long before the flood of amps came on the market, it’s a clean looking amp for those seriously wanting to upgrade their headphone system. When it comes to home amps, I’ve always considered this the be the baby of the bunch, but not in terms of sound. I’m sure it’ll give many portable amps a good run for their money!

Anyway, this should be a fairly modest bid.

Click the image for more info.

2008 Brand New Darkvoice Figaro Headphone Tube amp, waiting for you bid!

For some reason, there’s a 2008 Brand New Darkvoice Figaro Headphone Tube amp going for auction instead of a straight purchase. So, brush the dust of your credit card and get ready to bid.

Click the image for more information.

Some notes on the effect the FiiO E3 amp has on different headphones: AKG-K240 Studio with Sweetcome cable, OVC HC1000, Denon AH-D1000. The FiiO E3 mini-amp costs less than $10, and is certainly worth the money. Anyone owning a portable player without an amp should get one.

The FiiO E3 also has a great synergy with the OVC HC1000 headphones. OVC HC1000 cost $49 (plus $5 or $10 shipping) from Head-Direct, and are perhaps the first “portable” headphones that can compete not only with the likes of Sennheiser PX100/PX200, but also with more expensive gear. HC1000 and the FiiO E3 amp paired are at least as good (at the same, if not better, level of clarity/detail/dynamics, though slightly less bassy) as the Denon AH-D1000, worth $120-170 (depending on store). Less than $75 of headphone gear performing as well as a set of headphones worth two to three times as much.

Graham Slee Voyager Portable headphone amp going for £150. This is the baby of the bunch, with a massive amount of…… kick for the money. Well, its Graham Slee, what else would you expect?

Things are looking good for the headphone amp world today. Anyway Graham Slee has a reputation in the UK of creating brilliant amps. It’s your chance to grab a bargain Graham Slee amp. Get in there. Once again, if all else fails, I’m bidding as well, so please don’t outbid me (yeah right!)

To put things in perspective, my searches have found that the cheapest Graham Slee amp is £179/$350, so when there’s one up for bid on EBay, it’s time to get the credit card ready. The Solo retails at 924.90 USD/475.00 GB. , but not on an EBay bid…..hopefully!

Click the image for more info

Ray Samuels Tomahawk amp up for grabs. But pleasde don’t bid more than me For those of you in the mother land (UK) I’m trying to find out whether the seller will change their mind and ship to the UK.

Click the image, and bid for a bargain