UM Mage vs…

This may sound like a big bag of hype, but what I am saying is the result of real observations of the UM Mage’s sound quality. (Click to read more)…

UM Mage Customs

I have been very impressed with the JH13 IEM. Acknowledged by all as the current king of in ear monitors, the JH13 is the first IEM that successfully challenge and beat a lot of full size headphones. Well, that the phenomenon is not unique to the JH13. When I heard Unique Melody’s top of the line customs, the Mage, I immediately ask myself: “In the future, will IEMs take over headphones for good?”

(Click to read more)…

Hifiman HE-5 vs Sennheiser HD800

I’ve been going back and forth on the HE-5 and the HD800. This time I am listening purely on the CEC TL51xz and the Balanced Beta22. Both the HE-5 and the HD800 is in balanced configuration. I did not want to wait to source out for another cable, and so I made a balanced cable for the HE-5, using a Canare L-2T2S cable, terminated with two 3-pin Neutrik XLRs. The HD800, on the other hand, is equipped with fancy APureSound cable with the nice super nylon covering and the same two 3-pin Neutriks. A little unfair? Yes, but the world is also not perfect.

Initially, the fitment on the HE-5 is really bad, as I wrote on the first impression article. But I’ve found that pressing the cups to your head forms the pads to follow your head contour better. After doing it a few times, the pads sort of remembers the contour and stays in that form. And now, the fitment on the HE-5 is just nice, and the pads, maybe broken in, doesn’t feel as itchy as it did brand new. Though it still couldn’t compete with the glove-like fit of the HD800 with its microfiber pads, at least now I can feel comfortable wearing the HE-5 for longer periods of time.

The HE-5 needs a lot of current to drive, and while for most headphones, a higher impedance cans is harder to drive than a lower impedance one, this is not the case with the HE-5. Both the HE-5 and the HD800 requires roughly similar turns on the Beta22’s volume knob, with the HE-5 needing perhaps 1 or 2 clicks more on the DACT Attenuator. However, where portable amplifiers like the LISA 3 can drive the HD800 just fine, I find it to distort with the HE-5. The Hifiman EF-5 amplifier is reputedly to be a good match for the HE-5, giving a good performance out of a fairly low-budget amplifier. (Click to read more)…

Audio Technica ES10

Audio Technica rewrote the rules of portable with the ATH-ES10. When it was announced last year, I noticed that the ES10 is not just another new portable. It uses a 53mm driver, the same size driver as the one used in the bigger W-series headphones such as the W5000 and the new W1000X. Big sized drivers, most of the time, have an advantage over smaller ones, especially when it comes to bass. What’s amazing is that Audio Technica still manages to fit the 53mm driver into a housing not much bigger than the Sennheiser HD25-1. With a housing that size and a foldable headband, I’d consider grouping the ES10 as a portable. Of course they’re not ultra portable like the Sennheiser PX100, but if have ever use your SR-60 Grado outdoor, then you know what I’m talking about.

The Titanium housing is finished with a hairline finishing. What does a hairline finishing look like? If you use an Ipod without any form of protec

tion, you know that the glossy back side very quickly collects scratches, and so you have no choice but to spend $30 for some plastic or rubber silicone protection. The hairline finishing is sort of like that, except that they are done professionally and the scratches are all aligned to one direction. It comes out as a nice and classy finishing. The finishing not only gives you a unique, non bling-bling look, but I figure it may help to hide any scratches the housing may pick up on the way. Not that titanium is very easy to scratch, but I don’t dare to test it out on this ES10. (Click to read more)…

TTVJ & TTVJ

When I received the TTVJ Slim, I was curious on how it would compare to the TTVJ Millet Hybrid Portable. Conveniently enough, Todd had also shipped me the TTVJ Millet Hybrid so I can do a comparison to the new one side by side.

Although quite different in their topology, both TTVJ amplifiers definitely have the same house sound sound. You can tell that both are developed by the same person with a good ear for musicality. The TTVJ Slim may be a solid state design, but it is far from sounding like a dry solid state. As a matter of fact, it not only matches the musicality of the Hybrid Tube TTVJ portable amplifier, but it actually outdoes the Hybrid’s Sound Quality. (Click to read more)…

HD800 Journal: Part 3

Summing up what I’ve written previously on Part 1 and Part 2 of the HD800 Journal, I felt that the HD800 is an exceptional dynamic headphone, and the better the component upstream is, the better the HD800 gets. This is great news for people with a high end source and a high end amplifier, as finally, the bottleneck on the transducer has been removed and they can really hear every little drop of sound coming out of their high end source. At the same time, there has been a lot of frustration among other HD800 buyers, as it doesn’t seem to give them the $1400, ultimate-dynamic-cans sound that would end their headphone journey once and for all. (Click to read more)…

WooAudio6 Tube Amplifier

A good friend of mine loaned his WooAudio6 to me during his time away for a business trip. The WooAudio6 is the entry level model of WooAudio’s transformer coupled tube amplifiers. It sells for $585 in stock configuration, but this one has the PDPS power supply upgrade that costs an additional $60. Another popular upgrade offered by WooAudio is the Sophia Princess rectifier tube, though this unit does not have it. (Click to read more)…

ALO Rx Headphone Amplifier

The ALO Rx comes equipped with a lot of tech packed into a slim box roughly the size of an Ipod Classic. ALO not only jumped on the digital/attenuator volume control wave, but they also added many other goodies to the Rx amplifier. It has dual Lithium Ion batteries, a battery monitoring charging circuit, and a digitally controlled dual stepped attenuator circuit. ALO claimed that the batteries last for 17-30 hours depending on volume, with only 2-4 hours of charging time. (Click to read more)…

HD800 Journal: Part 2

After more listening with the Sennheiser HD800, I’ve concluded that the HD800 is so good, that if your bank account permits, you might want to start doing some source rolling. Yes, the HD800 is transparent and it will reveal any defects in your source, but other high end phones can do that too. What makes me start thinking of doing some source rolling, is that the HD800 has so much potential that I’d really like to hook it up to some $100k CDP+Transport system, and see what kind of magic comes out! (Click to read more)…

HD800 Journal: Part 1

What a long wait, but finally the HD800 is here. I’ve heard the HD800 at two other occassions, but nothing beats listening at home with your own personal set up.

This past week I’ve been contemplating an upgrade to my CEC CD5300 CD Player. The CD5300 is a great CD Player, and I really have nothing to complain about it, until I heard the higher end, top loading model TL51XZ. Even from the HD650, the improvement to the TL51XZ wasn’t modest. The top loader really have a massive depth in the soundstage, making the CD5300 sounds flat and two dimensional. The upgrade proved to be just in time for the arrival of the HD800. (Click to read more)…

TTVJ Slim: First Impression

TTVJ named the new portable amp the “TTVJ Portable Headphone Amplifier”. Since TTVJ already have a hybrid tube portable amplifier, I thought that calling the new amp as a “TTVJ Portable Headphone Amplifier” might get people confused. Some have been calling it the “TTVJ Portable with Stepped Attenuator”. Clear enough, but quite long to speak or to type out. I find “TTVJ Slim” as the best name the public have come out with for the amplifier, and that’s the name I’m going to use throughout this article. I hope Todd doesn’t mind. (Click to read more)…

Shure SRH-840: 50+ Hours

The sound of the Shure changes as the hours go by. I can start to describe the sound of the Shure after 50 hours have passed. It is definitely warm, and the sweet Shure midrange that I described in the 1st Impression is still there. What else? Sweet midbass punch. More and more headphone and IEM manufacturers understand that midbass punch adds a lot of groove to music. Grado did it with their HF2, and Westone did it with their W3, to name a few recent ones. Likewise the Shure SRH-840’s midbass punch adds fun and musicality to the music. (Click to read more)…

Sennheiser HD580: Affordable Reference

The Sennheiser HD580 is one of the best-bang-for-the buck purchase in the world of headphones. Used units go in the $100+ range, and the sound is virtually the same with the higher priced HD600. The HD600 headphone has gained a renowned status as the reference headphone for amplifier designer Ray Samuels and Ti Kan from AMB Labs. That means, for $100+, you can get a headphone that sounds very much alike to the reference headphone Ray Samuels and Ti Kan uses. (Click to read more)…

Monster Beats Studio By Dr.Dre

When the news broke that Monster cables are working together with Dr. Dre to make a line of headphones, most of the response I’ve heard were not positive. Sure, having Monster Cable and Dr. Dre’s name on the product will guarantee its success with the mass-market crowd, but Monster Cable actually have gained quite a reputation as an overpriced product, and Dr. Dre’s name imply a bass heavy headphone. These factors definitely don’t work with the audiophile and the headphone enthusiasts crowd. Likewise, I didn’t have the slightest interest in the Beats Studio Headphones. (Click to read more)…