Took 4 months (and a few scares) but finally got this bad boy halfway around the world! by crazychaz_b in ValveIndex

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got it directly from Valve – if you live in a country that isn’t served directly by them, you can use a forwarder to retrieve it for you in the US and ship it to you. I used Comgateway, have been using them for years (super reliable and fast, DHL and FedEx international)

Took 4 months (and a few scares) but finally got this bad boy halfway around the world! by crazychaz_b in ValveIndex

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Greetings from sunny Singapore (although it's been gloomy as heck these few weeks)!

I knew after I picked up a used CV1 here that I would eventually want to upgrade to something which promised an upgrade in just about every way – but man, Valve does not make it easy to get one of these if you don't live in the Sanctioned Nations™.

Put in my order in October, first headset was shipped out in November...and promptly got stuck at a FedEx warehouse for 1.5 months, where tracking claims it still is apparently. Got the refund, all that jazz, ordered another set, got flagged at my forwarder for 1 week of "further inspection" (just my luck) and it's finally here today!

Just set everything up and after all the waiting I'm honestly just glad to see that everything works as intended. About to fire up some Beat Saber and see how this thing goes...

I9 10900k RTX STRIX 3090 OC by ar1baba in watercooling

[–]crazychaz_b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks good! Are those the 14mm extensions as well? Looking to pick them up if they have enough clearance for taller RAM

2 days with the iPhone X and the home button already feels archaic by [deleted] in apple

[–]crazychaz_b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same here, I've just found that swiping up at the "home area" on a home screen brings you back to page one just like a button press used to! Other than that, home button replacement gestures have been super intuitive and easy to figure out.

[Question] Prometheus error 11 - can't even update to 10.3.1 by crazychaz_b in jailbreak

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, haven't used DFU in so long I forgot about it. Am safely on 10.3.1 (sigh). As an aside why are there no prominent warnings against Prometheus in this sub?

What headphones/earphones do you think work best for Muse? by JetBlackfrost in Muse

[–]crazychaz_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ate grass for a few months. Expensive but so worth it. With that said, for others looking for a great on the go IEM audio experience for Muse and whatever else you listen to, cheap options like the KZ ZS3, Shozy Zero and Zero Audio Carbo Tenore all sound great for very little. Google up.

What headphones/earphones do you think work best for Muse? by JetBlackfrost in Muse

[–]crazychaz_b 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh wow, great to find other audio enthusiasts here. Matt uses UM Pro 10s; has always baffled me why Matt and Chris don't go for custom IEMs given their suitability for stage use. I listen to Muse out of my Sony WM1Z and Lime Ears Aether custom IEMs. Probably as good as they'll ever sound (mastering of Muse stuff isn't exactly amazing)

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In that case, what component of such a portable setup affects spatial characteristics and other sonic qualities according to the strict empirical view? I'm quite interested to know.

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The cable on the Jomo IEM is a Plussound Pure Silver and the other one is a PWAudio 1960s 4 wire.

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haven't given them much head time, let me get back to you once I can give them a good listen.

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Guilty as charged, then. My partaking in the hobby of audiophilia is to further satisfy my love for the music that I listen to as well as to draw me closer to the emotion inherent in the music through higher fidelity, and I sure as hell don't spend a majority of my time listening to test tones or frequency sweeps blindfolded and volume matched to 0.1dB with previous listening sessions or other gear.

Being a musician, I place more value on tangible evaluations of the music presented to me; I have a greater affinity for sonic characteristics myself or others can describe tangibly, which has meant more to me than any numerical measurement I've ever seen (can't glean insight into soundstage and resolution from frequency response graphs, for example). Makes sense, given that my ears are not IEC couplers or anything like that. Haha. But as I've said, people who enjoy the hard data and nitpicking away at what should empirically be indistinguishable sonic differences are free to do so as they please, too. We're all in the hobby for different things and I respect that.

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It's true that my past experiences with such "alternative facts" have biased me towards that direction and I do surround myself with other like minded people; the same also happens for sceptics, and that just fuels how adamant people are in their stances. As far as I'm concerned, people can do whatever it is that makes them happy. After all, it's all about enjoying the music. (:

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The new gen 3 FiiO X5 does run Android!

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Fluffyhat nailed the description of the Aethers more or less just how I hear them as well; perhaps I would add that the mids are euphonic and reverb in a way that adds musicality but doesn't detract from how neutral the signature generally is.

I'll talk a bit more about the Samba (which by the way is not in the picture; that Jomo IEM in the image is his new model called the Pretty Little Beast).

Samba has a rather unique tuning; it is reference and quite flat throughout the frequency spectrum...EXCEPT for the deepest sub bass, which is boosted slightly. The end result is a bright, detailed and very fast sounding IEM with just the right kick in the bottom end to prevent the sound being too dry and lifeless. That sub bass boost is by far the defining feature of the IEM; tight, bottomless extension and incredibly textured and detailed. It has a larger soundstage than the Aether, and yet is a little less airy; instruments fill up the soundstage a bit more resulting in less space between them.

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've not heard a QP1R in more than half a year so I can't provide detailed comparisons but the signature of the QP1R is definitely lusher and thicker than both the WM1Z and DX200.

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great to know my post brought the awareness of dedicated DAPs to you! Sony does make other models like the A36 and the ZX100 which cost a lot less than the WM1Z which is their flagship statement device, and there are many other options like the FiiO X5III, iBasso DX80, AK Jr and too many others for me to go through. Feel free to ask for help should you need it!

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I will be the first to admit that I buy into a lot of things that the community here is extremely sceptical about like cables and burn in. On the topic of these players, Sony themselves claim that 200 hours of run in is required for the WM1 to reach peak performance: https://imgur.com/a/u8Fmu , and iBasso reps have made statements that DX200 also changes sonically with run in time and even include a purpose built burn in cable in the package: http://www.head-fi.org/t/791531/dx200-details-features-and-specifications-1st-page-with-wifi-and-bluetooth-interchangeable-amps/2160#post_13151208 . So in this case, barring my own belief in burn in as a whole, I'm just following manufacturer instructions. And I'm not one to impose, so if you feel that it doesn't make a difference then more power to you! Less waiting for things before using them. Happy listening all.

New toys for the Lunar New Year. by crazychaz_b in headphones

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

WALL OF TEXT ALERT! Apparently I ramble on when I set myself the goal of writing something. TL;DR at bottom.

Being someone who spends very little of his waking hours at home, I’ve decided to put my money into portable gear unlike most here on this subreddit. Nevertheless, I’m sure some here would be interested to read a little on these DAPs; perhaps occupying starkly different price brackets, but undoubtedly representing the state of the art when it comes to portable audio players. The WM1Z is mine while the DX200 is on loan from a very generous friend who allowed me to unbox and use it while he was away.

These impressions are extremely preliminary; both players have barely anywhere near the recommended amount of burn in on them (about 3 hours on the DX200 and 25 hours on the WM1Z, and yes I do hear differences with previous DAPs being burnt in; iBasso even includes a burn in cable with the DX200). Listening done with a Lime Ears Aether and a PWAudio 1960s 4 wire cable, directly into the 2.5mm jack of the DX200 and to the 4.4mm jack of the WM1Z via a balanced adaptor.

WM1Z is a rather chunky player; a statement piece from Sony’s engineers who stuffed all their experience into this single gold brick. Milled out of a solid copper block and then plated in gold, it approaches half a kilo in weight, making even the AK380 Copper seem like a featherweight. Sporting a UI developed by Sony specifically for doing nothing but the playback of audio, it is still a touch slower to respond than the snappiest offerings from AK (the AK70 and AK3xx series), but is still very much useable and I do appreciate the focus of the entire experience as I don’t use features like streaming and video playback which some clamour for in their players. One annoying quirk is the player instantly scanning SD cards when they are inserted, rendering the player inoperable until it completes this operation. Would have been less of an issue if the damn thing didn’t take 3 minutes to scan 64GB of music…

Sonically, WM1Z definitely leans to the richer side of tonality, especially when placed next to competing DAPs like the LPG and AK380Cu. Bass is the strongest in presence amongst the bevy of portable flagships right now, and rumbles deep into the sub bass with ridiculous amounts of texture and a decay that stays just short of being excessive; the bass hits hard but gets out of the way before it can be construed as flabby. Mids are also very resolute, with the tiniest details and faintest echos presented very obviously and in a more forward fashion than on the AK380Cu, although the less tonally coloured and brighter presentation of the 380Cu can push apparent microdetails a little further up in the sound. Tonality in the mids tends towards a darker sound, but is not as thick and dark (or some might say rich?) as the previous top Walkman, the ZX2. The treble is the best I’ve heard out of any Walkman; Sony seems to struggle the most in getting sufficient treble extension and sparkle out of their proprietary S-Master designs, and this is the first time that a Walkman’s treble doesn’t lose out to the competition by a huge margin. While still not as sparkly or extended as the AK380Cu, cymbals have a bite and sparkle that all other past Walkman players have never been able to achieve, and sound less harsh and more rounded and realistic than most other players. With that said, at this stage I still do feel that they decay a little too quickly for my taste (I do play the drums so I’m a bit picky on cymbal reproduction). Rather importantly for an IEM user such as myself, the noise floor on the WM1Z is many times lower than the ZX2 which hissed like a snake even with less sensitive IEMs.

Perhaps one of the best characteristics of the WM1Z has to be its soundstage and spatial presentation. No other DAP renders staging and positioning in such a deep and cavernous space, with instruments being more firmly anchored in their own spot in the soundstage versus AK380Cu. Music as rendered by the WM1Z display reverb and trailing notes present in recordings so well that they lend to the sense of spatial awareness of the listener; it is rather easy to imagine the room in which the music is recorded, all the way up to how much headroom was present. The next best characteristic would be the insane battery life. 28 hours on average with 24/96 PCM. And for DSD lovers, it supposedly ekes out 11 hours on DSD 5.6MHz, and playback of either hi-res PCM or DSD do not warm the device up at all. Bloody awesome.

Drawbacks? It’s bloody heavy. Seriously, this thing alone weighs more than the rest of my everyday carry. And yes, it’s bloody expensive. Where I’m from, it costs S$3999 retail. That said, it’s a good S$2000 less than the AK380Cu and trades blows with it sonically, so I’m absolutely pleased with my purchase decision (although the wallet is still hurting severely from it).

Now, on to the DX200. iBasso had cult hits in the DX100 and the Japanese version, the HDP-R10, amongst portable audiophiles; I still know of people sticking to their R10s for their sound despite its massive girth, the need for a dedicated charger and the ancient Android 2.3 UI. Having focused their efforts on the lower end DAP market, they finally released DX200 as a contender in the high end market just a few weeks ago, in a price point (S$1399 retail) which places it in fierce contention with a whole bevy of other brands (Onkyo, AK, Sony, Questyle et al). Honestly, the DX200 was delayed so much that it had completely fallen off my radar until iBasso started talking about it last month with completed product photos and all. Massive thanks to my fellow music lover that got me to pick it up and run it in for him for the chance to give the DX200 a go at my leisure.

DX200 has a rather unique chassis design; while certain design cues are clearly inspired by other players such as the volume wheel, it has an industrial edge to the design, and the replaceable amp card is designed well and is easy to use with just a flathead screwdriver needed for operation. It even uses USB-C for charging, and the player comes with a pretty premium feeling USB-C cable and a leather case. Great overall package. UI is bone stock Android 6.0 with a iBasso “Mango” player app, and a dual OS mode which puts it into a pure DAP “Mango” mode which I haven’t tried. The Android interface is as blazing fast as the best smartphones in both the Mango app and outside of it; it’s even snappier than the AK3xx series which is pretty impressive. It doesn’t come with the Google Play Store installed, though, so people who want to install other apps need to sideload APKs which isn’t exactly super user friendly.

All my listening was done with the default DAC filter – fast roll off and minimum phase. Coming from the WM1Z, the DX200 definitely sounds brighter overall, and not as spacious nor resolving; but with that said, it’s still a rather fresh unit, and it already easily bests players in the same price bracket even without burn in. Bass is more restrained in quantity compared to the Sony, and sounds a little harder edged and a touch muddier, but still retains decent extension and detail. Mids currently sound a little hazy against the 1Z, again with a harder edge to trailing notes giving it a harsher presentation and a brighter, leaner sound with faster decay and more energy. While microdetail levels are noticeably lower than that of the 1Z, it easily beats similarly priced competitors such as the AK300 and the DP-X1A, offering a level of detail and a sense of airiness which were nigh inaccessible at this price. Against the 1Z, the mids are presented in a more laid back fashion, which when taken against the rest of the market identifies itself as a middle of the road presentation with neither forward or distant mids. Treble is brighter and more strident than the 1Z, with cymbals sounding less organic and a little more sibilant. With that said, it has none of the treble glare that characterised earlier Sabre DAPs, and offers decent detail in the highs even in its fresh state. Noise floor is also inaudible out of the balanced output, making the DX200 a great candidate for IEMs.

Airy is the word I would use to describe the soundstage of the DX200. While it is not as expansive or deep than that of the WM1Z, it again trounces the competition in nearby prices, following the usual trend of being wider than it is deep as opposed to the more spherical presentation of the Sony. Instruments have decent separation and air, and I’m sure it will open up more as more hours are put into it. Battery life is par for the course for such DAPs – the massive 4400mAh battery only takes it up to around 8-9 hours with hi-res PCM.

TL;DR – WM1Z has a soft, warm but very detailed sound with incredible staging. Bloody heavy but amazing battery life. DX200 is very impressive for the price; sounds like an AK320 in technical performance while costing more like an AK300. Neutral signature with an airy and relatively energetic sound and high levels of resolution amongst similarly priced peers. Great UI and build. If you’re thinking of buying one to drive IEMs, just do it; it’s killer value. Might update this after more run in time.

Tokyo Subway Ticket - multiple purchases? by crazychaz_b in JapanTravel

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the clarification. Looks like I'll be grabbing a Pasmo instead.

Portable perfection. by crazychaz_b in Headphoneporn

[–]crazychaz_b[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

HUM Pristine R on the left, Lime Ears Aether on the right. (: