Lowyat.NET: Latest topics in Audiophiles

Brand NEW Ultimate Ears Earphones, Selling Brand NEW MetroFi 220

key41jj — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:14:12 +0800

Hie everyone,

I'm selling a brand new pair of Ultimate Ears MetroFi 220. I bought it from the US but haven't been used yet. Here's the product website for those of you who don't know about this product.

http://ultimateears.com/_ultimateears/stor.../metrofi220.php

This product is retailing in the US store for USD 79.99 or RM300.

This is a one time deal since I'm a consumer myself.

Payments can be made via direct debit via my acc RHB Bank. Serious buyers only.

About Headphone VS Speaker Left & Right,

advocado — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:37:05 +0800

Hello, would like to know is there any difference between Headphone Left/Right & TV/Speakers Left/Right?

I know headphone left is always our left side while right is our right, but what about TV & Speakers since they are facing towards us? Are they inverted meaning left is the TV/Speakers left instead our left?

How to DIY headphone jacks & cable,

advocado — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:05:35 +0800

Hello, would like to know how to DIY headphone jack (male or female) to a pair cable with ground?

Is it possible to do it like those normal cable bought in hardwareshop where they have the rubber cover like this:

or we have to do it like:

Am wondering whether it would be cheaper to buy from shop or DIY assuming I'm just using normal jack & cable no exotic cable & jack?

Also if want good connectors & pair cables where can we find 1 cheap? Or they sell in rolls?

Wireless Speaker For Computer, Where I can get??

corkygoon — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:13:23 +0800

Anybody know where I can get wireless speaker for computer?? and how much is it??

Thanks

Psuedo-Audiophile TT Session, + Planning for Next Year

Eiraku — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:34:28 +0800

Hey guys, opening a new thread here for impressions on 21 Nov's TT and also for planning of next year's event!

I can't do much yet because I have stuff to do today, but DO post your own impressions on the TT / ideas for the next meet here!

Driving Headphone with Preamp,

bluey88 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:22:09 +0800

Have anyone tried driving their headphone with the RCA out of preamp?
Wonder if this can be done and how to go about doing it.

Headphones Amp, The Best vs Value for $

akgmalaysia — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:25:15 +0800

jz wanna get ur opinion

1. wats d best hdphones amp $ can buy

2. wats d best value 4 $ hdphones amp

my iems are too sensitive,

carmatic — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:32:54 +0800

right now, i am using a pair of IEM's which are so sensitive that i can hear all the hissing noises from all my amps, because they have been designed to drive big headphones... also the volume control is useless, at the bottom is no sound, press + once or twice and its already too loud

i am planning to buy a 3.5mm extension cord with a built in resistor to reduce the power reaching the IEM's, so the noise will go away... nobody knows where to buy something like that?

also, someone brought up a point about the impedance and damping factor: http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=29959296
the damping factor applies to moving coil drivers, those of you who pass SPM physics will know how moving coil drivers work ... damping factor means less 'peak' at resonance frequency because the movement of the coils through the magnetic field will induce currents in the coil which will oppose that movement etc etc ...

my IEM's are balanced armature IEM's, so the coils dont move (they magnetize a spring between the north/south pole of a magnet), and i think that means no damping factor and i dont have to worry about sound quality when i mess with the resistance/impedance/etc...

altec lansing vs edifier again, For movies which one better?!?

~yy_r|c — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:44:09 +0800

hello to all the pro out there,

i hvn own any speakers before but i wish to have one in like a week time

i more interested in watching movies and gaming..mostly moviess!
i now confusing about choosing Edifier or Altec Lansing.
Both of them seems cool to me and i need more suggestion which model should i get
coz mostly forumer leave bad comment for the newest version of AL..

pls state which model so i can go lowyat to test it out.... thanks guys...
bdway, my budget is RM250 +/-

[addedon]November 22, 2009, 11:36 pm[/addedon]hello? is somebody out there can help me out?!?

Headphone Equalization:, The proper way of equalization

Najmods — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:17:06 +0800

I don't know if this thread has been made or not, but I stumble upon this thread at Head-Fi about headphone equalization. Read all about it here

I done it to my modded Sennheiser HD437 because I feel its a bit too upfront and sharp in sound, unpleasant for long listening, after tested with SineGen I found there are three spikes occur at 3300Hz (the worst), 4600Hz and 8000Hz where it all the sudden jumps in loudness and become too sharp, after I equalize this it sounded better for long listening, slightly laid back and not too sharp especially on modern tracks

Test them and give opinion/impression about it, its easy. If you run foobar get the Electri-Q and George Yhong's VST wrapper for Foobar. Everything is on the thread

Cambridge Audio 650 vs Marantz PM6003,

msiathot — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:34 +0800

I am considering a standalone amp to mate with my Wharfedale 9.1 speakers instead of upgrading my AV receiver.

Which of the two amp would you recommend for a bedroom?

Feedback appreciated.

head-amp - 3 channel? 4 channel? active ground?, what are the differences?

maxwelx64 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:28:21 +0800

there are several questions exist in my mind when i read about 3 or 4 channel topology based head-amp...
1. they said this is an improvement, but how does it improves the sound quality?
2. the active ground input is connected to DAC's output ground, while the output connect to headphone's ground?
3. then, all channel's ground (for capacitors, resistor....) connect to power supply's ground?
4. can a cmoy use this topology too?
5. any limitation / adjustment required, to applied this topology in other structures of head-amp?

MEElectronics GrooveMEE II, a review

ClieOS — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:34:48 +0800

I have been using this little player on and off over the last few weeks now and so I thought it is time to give it a review.

Spec
Screen: 320x240 262K color 2.6 inches touch screen TFT.
USB: 2.0 (MSC device)
Memory: 4GB / 8GB
Battery: 600mAh Li-ion 3.7v (rechargeable via USB)
Voice Record: 8KHz / 16KHz WAV
Music: MP3 (up to 448Kbps), WMA (up to 192Kbps), OGG, FLAC, WAV, APE
Video: AVI, MPG, MP4, WMV, MOV, RM, RMVB
Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20KHz
FM: 30 preset stations with recording function
Multi-languages supported
Multiple EQ presets including Microsoft PlayFX
Built-in G-Sensor for motion control
TXT files (eBook) supported
JPEG/BMP/GIF images supported with slide show
microSD card slot
Software scratch pad for drawing and note
Built-in speaker
Files browser

Build Quality and Accessories

On the right side of the touch screen: Vol+, Vol-, Menu, Note(scratch pad), , Rec. microSD slot and mic/reset are on the bottom.

Headphone jack and USB slot on the side, ON/OFF (with hold) on the top.

Most of the outer case seems to be nickel plated steel, which gives the player a bit more weight than your typical mp3 player. All the marking and icons are either lasered on or engraved. The housing is very classy actually though it is a fingerprints magnet.

Inside the box, you will find the GrooveMEE II, USB power adapter, USB cable, pen for touch screen, MEElectrnoics' own IEM the M2 (with three set of eartips), silicone case, small CD with a simple video converting software inside, user manual. Pretty everything you will need for a mp3/mp4 player are included, which is of course great.

Overall the build quality is pretty good. The metal housing does have more weight to it, but not something too heavy to carry around. The included earphone is MEElec's own M2 with the new cable, which is definitely a step up from typical stock earbud you will get from most brand name mp3 player. Unlike most other DAP, with GrooveMEE II you get almost everything you'll need instead of spending more money trying to get things like silicones case or a decent quality IEM. The included pen is a nice touch. While the player itself doesn't have extra space to hold the pen, there is a side compartment in the silicone case reserved for it. The G-sensor actually works okay. You can use do Next/Previous by shaking the player to the right/left direction but it isn't too sensitive to randomly skip song.

If there is one thing that I want to complain about, it will be the viewing angle of the screen. Basically you will need stay in front of the screen to get 100%. While you can still see at an angle, the reflection becomes more of a problem. This is likely an issue when you want to share your video together with someone else.

Navigation
There is one physical switch on the player and it is the ON/OFF with hold key. To turn the player on, you'll need to push the ON/OFF switch to aside for a good 5 seconds. Push it to the other side and you will lock the touch screen down.

Most of the navigation is done via the touch screen. Basically there are 8 selections on the main menu: Music, video, photo, radio, record, eBook, extra, and setting. You will find the file manager, a calender, stopwatch and the scratch pad inside 'extra'. You can also change the color of the most of the font and the menu transition style inside the setting.

In music playback, you can either use the folder browser to play music inside a folder, or choose from ID3tag based categories such as 'artist' or 'album' (it is a bit slow this way as the player read the whole library). Generally the player acts more 'old school' (no necessary a bad thing) and works much like a MSC device. I do hope the browser can be a bit more straight forward (especially on the naming on different folder and submenu) as something it can get a little confusing. During music playback, you can choose whether to display the ID3tag info, lyric, album art or active equalizer. Since the player use kind of a file browser to navigate and select music, you will get both the internal memory and the microSD as two separate folder instead of a tightly integrated music library.

Video playback is much simpler to use. Just browse and select the file you want to play. Unfortunately it doesn't remember the last position so you will need to start from the beginning every time.

While there is a pen included for navigation, using finger is just as easy - but I do recommend you use a screen protector sticker so you won't scratch the screen in the long run. On a side note, the scratch pad (or 'note' function) is quite fun to use and function like 'Paint' in Wondows, but not precise enough for really create a drawing.

Sound / Video / Photo Quality
I mainly compare GrooveMEE II to my Sansa Fuze and Nano4 for its SQ. GrooveMEE II has a colder, brighter sound signature that slightly lack in warm, much like Nano4. However, the overall SQ is pretty decent. In comparison, I think its headphone-out on flat EQ can at least match, or even better than Nano4, while not as good as Fuze. On the other hand, GrooveMEE II has much better and more enjoyable EQ than both Fuze and Nano4. Another plus is it also supports the more common lossless codec such as FLAC and APE. I didn't test any lossless as my music library consist mainly of high quality mp3 or wma.

What surprised me at first about the GrooveMEE II is its video support. For testing, I put a DVD resolution RMVB movie into the player (w/o any conversion!) expecting to crash it (or at least make it quits) but instead it plays it rather smoothly without much pixelation. This put both Fuze and Nano4 to shame. GrooveMEE II does come with a simply video converting software for those oddly encoded video, but so far I don't find any need to install it.

For Photo, I have tested a 3MP pictures without problem. It will auto zoom the picture to fit the screen, but it also allow a fixed 2X(?) zoom but it won't do full size. It is a decent picture viewer overall.

Conclusion
Overall, I find GrooveMEE II to be a decent all around player for the money ($70 for the 4GB models and $90 for the 8GB). It does everything well but nothing very outstanding. Versatility is perhaps its strength in the three MEElectronics' PMPs line-up (MEElec also has the smaller MiniMEE II purely for music and portability while the larger RockMEE II oriented toward video playback). Strange enough RockMEE II also priced the same as the GrooveMEE II. It does has a bigger 3 inches 16:9 screen but lacks touch screen or G-sensor. The inclusion of microSD slot on both player is great as you can get really cheap microSD card these days which can easily double the capacity of the player.

Personally, I will still pick my Fuze for purely music playback (plus I already have custom LOD built for it), but if you are looking for a decent PMP that does everything well which isn't too complicated to use, this one is worth a consideration.

Best Music Player for Computer Ever!, Sound like change a sound card!

special4u — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:47:44 +0800

Have any body use this music player before? Beoplayer

i used to use TTplayer to play all sort of music in my computer, but after i change to this Beoplayer, wow, it sound totally amazing, sounds like i have change a better sound card. i never thought a player can provide such a great experience when i switch from the previous player to this 1. it sound like a huge improvement for music. i personally recommend this to everyone who love music. it just simply make mp3 to become like lossless format..

Further more, it was create by B & O, Bang & Olufsen and it is totally free. you only need to register and use it. the only shortcome would be it not support lyric and equalizer and not user friendly. But who care?

i never use foobar 2000 before, so i dun know how it sound if compare to this 1, but some 1 on the internet say it is better than foobar 2000.

now this player very hot in china, but not the malaysia or other country. below are some user reviews in chinese.

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

www.bang-olufsen.com/beoplayer

.Rega Plannar 3 refurbish project, will keep update on the progess la~

raizil — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:42:36 +0800

BEEP! BEEP!

SELF POISON MODE : ON

After so unproductive weeks, i decided to refurbish my dad's turntables. I got Bang & Olfusen 1500 and the Rega Plannar 3.

B&O 1500, i need someone who really familiar with the stuff so he can verify if this stuff still works. seems like it needs belt, a tonearm too maybe. i just cant confirm it yet.

The Rega still working,motor still spinning but same thing~ it needs the belt and confirm a tonearm because its not there.

Decided to go through with the Rega first. My first step, visit asia audio and get their advise.

So here I am, dipping myself in a sea full of poison. Lets see how high the dosage can go la~. I'll keep updating the progress.

Cheers,
Raizil

SELF POISON MODE: STILL ON

[addedon]November 20, 2009, 12:49 am[/addedon]update:

went to Asia Audio. Mr Eddie (the owner, not eddie putera, this guy busy goncang developing tank) , told me that, no point to refurbish. He said, i have to change everything, motor, tonearm, etc etc which gonna cost me a same price as buying a new Rega P2 (RM9++). The Rega Plannar 3-24 (new version) price tag now is RM1600.They do have a trade in scheme. Goin to look into that.

Any suggestion u guys? The rega plannar condition physically is doesnt look like new. Scratch here and there, but as long as it can produce a good sound im ok with that.

Why la I korek all the stuff~ hahahaha

[WTF] Recabling Service, For KOSS KSC75

fixgd — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:05:31 +0800

as the topic says, i need to recable it like PCWorks did, but i could not get in touch with him
so anyone else can get it done?

Need some help, Broken cable

studwo — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:21:03 +0800

http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/shop_o...hones/index.jsp

I am using this for the past 10 months .
Recently it's cable just broke . Near the left side the cable of the earphone broke .

Is it possible to replace the cable? how much will it cost ? Who should i talk or contact to ?

Is it worth it .. to replace the cable ?

[addedon]November 19, 2009, 11:38 am[/addedon]some bumpz . i really need some help /

Stereo Bluetooth Receive, Where can I get it in Malaysia?

finch! — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:18:57 +0800

Hi. I'm searching for stereo bluetooth receiver, if there's one.

My idea is that I can stream audio from my laptop (which i always use on bed) to the speakers which are at the other side of the room.

Anyone knows where can I get it? perhaps from garage sale? I searched but couldnt find one. and i wonder how much will it cost me?

Wall mountable satelite speaker,

Deswin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:54:28 +0800

im planning to buy the logitech x-540 5.1 surround system.. as d speakers r wall mountable...does it comes with any thing to moount it on d wall?? Any other ways to mount the speaker on d wall without using a drill??

Audio effects question,

harith_gtr34 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:39:14 +0800

This is my assignment question.

What are the common effects can be applied to make the audio clear?

I only know Reverb. Is there any other effects?

Hope you guys can help me. Tq