socrates63

TBH, I've no idea. There's a thread over at HF where people are talking about this question. With analog ICs, I can hear differences without trying hard. With optical cables, someone left behind a plastic optical cable at a meet and I tried it with my setup. I later bought the glass cable that I linked in an earlier post, and I didn't hear a difference. I paid $10-15 more than the cheaper cables, and after reading some people's comments, I wanted to hear for myself.

Oh, I see. I never took to wearing IEMs over the ear. Either the fit didn't seem right or the IEM would fall out easily (Shure E500). That's interesting because I thought Alex's Ety cable and v3 headphone cables were made from different cables. Perhaps this shows the maker's preferences in cable sonic design. I'm going to defer answering this until I get more time with the new cable. But then again, you should find out soon enough. It looks like your cable was made in the same batch as mine. What length did you order and did you ask for an impedance resister to be built into the connector? The same length as the stock cable, 5'. If I were to order again, I'd go for 6' instead for an extra freedom of movement.

I received my APureSound ER4P cable yesterday from Alex. Ever since the cable on my ER4P began cutting in and out, I had been thinking about whether I should go for [AK]Zip's cable (costs about the same as the Ety itself) or send it to Etymotic for repair (said to be $50). After hearing APureSound recabled KSC75 at a recent meet, I became convinced that it was worth it. I had no question about the workmanship as Alex is well regarded. My trepidation was about the degree of improvements that would be achieved. My only complaint about the ER4P/S sound was that it can sound a tad thin at times, and it seemed that Alex's cable would address this. Enough blabbering, on with the pics: As the thread title states, this is just my impressions of what I'm hearing and I'm still a newbie so take my comments for what they're worth, about 2 cents. I've listened with the cable less than an hour (not burned in if that's an issue), so you may see giddyness over a new toy in my comments. I also used a 75ohm resister connector that Alex sent, so essentially, I'm talking about the ER4S. I have a second ER4P with the stock cable, and I used the triple flange on both ER4P. Source was my iRiver iHP-140 (ALAC files) and amp was a MisterX PINT. Physically, there is no additional layer of sheathing like the stock Ety cable but the stiffness and flexibility is about the same as stock cable. I didn't perceive a significant different in micronics either. That said, I love the braiding. It looks so organic (bundle of nerve fibers). And now the sound... I listened to a few Alison Krauss songs as well as a couple of tracks from Korean CCM albums. Three things jumped to me immediately. First, acoustic guitars sound amazing and real. Second, the sound didn't seem like it was being generated inside my head, typical of IEMs, but rather closer to the openings of my ears, more like headphones. Third, the soundstage got bigger -- deeper and wider. Overall, there was better detail and texture to the sound and better punch from the drums. All this had the effect of making me feel like I was brought closer to the front of the stage, somewhere between the middle rows and the front rows. In comparison, the stock cable makes it seems like I'm somewhere between the middle rows and the back rows. Clearer and more detailed transients ever so slightly fattened the sound. My only minor quibble with the cable is with the angle of the connectors to the drivers. On the stock cable, the connector angles the cable about 35 degrees. With the APureSound cable, the cables are positioned at 90 degrees to the driver (see photos above). This means the cable rubs against the side of my face. While this isn't a big deal and not bothersome to the point of annoyance, it would be good to see Alex address this in the future. If it hasn't been made apparent already, I really love what the APureSound cable does with the ER4P. I've tried other IEMs (E500, super.fi 5 Pro) and I prefer the Ety by a long shot. I'm glad to have found something to enhance that experience. I look forward to using the cable with my Gilmore Lite which is currently sitting in my office. I found recently that the ER4S responds well to the GLite, and portable amps don't do the ER4S justice. I also look forward to improvements with cable/ear burn-in.

Get a Zune 30GB -- under $100. It will do music, videos and photos. The price compares well to small flash DAPs.

iRiver SlimX PCDPs have optical out. Works great as a transport with the Micro DAC and my MSB Link III. It's been a while since I compared, but when compared to the optical out on the iRiver H140 (ALAC files), I prefer the same songs played on the SlimX. The sound was more dynamic and had better layering. I haven't tried any other PCDPs.

Happy birthday!

Pocket PC will do PDF, videos, photos, music, wi-fi -- kind of a mini PC in your pocket.

And you can get it (Dayton Glass) with the mini connector on one end, so no adapter is needed. It's well built and flexible. I'm happy with mine.

choo, you got it all wrong, man. The cool gang from HF didn't find this place. The Cool Gang from HF founded this place. The cool was already here before the gang from HF showed up. </suck up>

Thanks for the help. Yeah, like that. Thanks, guys.

Non-ASCII characters change to question marks in posts made in HC. I see that this was brought up once in the PPA v. M^3 thread but I didn't see an answer from the admin. I also experienced the same thing when I tried to insert superscript 3 character in my sig. Is this issue on tkam's radar?

How big is the TV, and how far does he need to sit from the TV? I mean, the cord on headphones like the PX100 are not very long.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

True story... I actually missed EdipisReks and his posts, and one day I took a peak into his HF profile. I think Reks started the post a photo of your rig thread or something like that. It's a popular thread and it's usually sitting there on the first page of Members Lounge. Anyways, one day I clicked his name to view his profile, and in it was listed head-case.org as his homepage.

I believe Gabe Logan's amp is the same one that I have. It's a great deal if it's still available. My MPX3 SE originally sold for $2200, and at the time (a little over a year ago), Mikhail said that it was as good as a low end Supra. I've no experience with any other Single Power gear, so I'm just relaying what was told to me. I love what the MPX3 SE does with my headphones. I'm not using fancy tubes -- Sylvania 6BL7GTA and RCA 6SN7 tubes that I got from Mikhail. I've found that with some of my other amps, they sound particularly good with some headphones and not others. With the MPX3, pretty much everything headphone I have sound great, and in particular, both my RS-1 and W5000 come alive with lush details, soundstage, and impact (especially the RS-1). While I've no direct experience with it, I'm a fan of the Zana Deux. I love look of Eddie Current amps -- that touch of nostalgia of vintage audio gear. The Moth amps are absolutely beautiful and the ZD has a hint of that look. Yeah, call me vain.

For crying out loud, Mama! You've got a spoiled child on your hands.

We're trying! I know we still have a ways to go to duplicate the atmosphere of the Florida meets (that's a good thing, right? ), but we're getting there.

Awesome photos, Brian. I just have to say again that I was really happy with the Desktop Portable. We definitely need to get Headroom amps again next time. And Justin, you were missed. Seattle being so far from most parts of the country, I was really looking forward to the opportunity to meet you. His said his name was George and he had been on HF for a couple of years (I think) but never registered. There was another person who was unregistered on HF but nonetheless made it to the meet. Too bad he came very late as he was another enthusiastic fellow with a lot of questions. Anyone know this guy? He came to the May meet as well, but I never got his name. motherone's gear... he was a no-show at the last meet, but I will forgive him because he brought so much interesting stuff, including the Monica2. Too bad he came a bit late. And you can thank Kelvin for getting me to bring more gear than I had intended. Originally, my intent was to stick with the DIY theme and bring only the Beta22 and my 3 portables.

92" screen, new 1080p projector </drool>

:angel::angel::angel:

So true! I'm still confused sometimes. Happy birthday to one of you!

For the two meets in Seattle, we looked for free rooms and started with libraries that had conference rooms. This one was held in a conference room in a local public library. If you're a student and don't expect too many people, then perhaps the university can offer a meeting location. I know that people have held meets in schools and even meeting rooms in a coffee shop. Some of the areas with a larger membership have held meets in hotels, but until we can develop an active steady support from people in Seattle, we wanted to keep costs as low as possible.

Find out, drats! Fixed the sig.

Yeah, having tried my hand at organizing the meet in May, I can appreciate what Brian must have gone through. The room was excellent and better than the last meet. It probably comfortably fits 20-25, may be more, even with tables. While I couldn't attend because of family obligations, after the meet, bunch of the guys headed to the pub across the street. Very nice location for a meet. We should start an hour earlier next time -- 11am. With setting up and packing, that leaves 3-4 hours, and the time goes by so quickly.