Random find of the day:

A casual search on the net returns this:

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/a-first-look-at-the-asus-xonar-d2-soundcard/5082-5.html?doc=5082

Asus Xonar

Creative X-Fi Elite Pro

Now when people say that the Xonar is much better-sounding for music I can totally understand.

Somebody should join Creative and produce a card good for both gaming and music. Onkyo X-Fi, maybe?

Or maybe hi-fi really isn't part of Creative's market. Seeing how their own $5,000 system is so close to their T3. T3 is worth close to $5,000/The $5,000 system is worth $5,000, one of them has to be lying. Or both.

Giving up on Zhaolu D3

ADD: After hearing the D3 for just that few moments I'm feeling that the D2.5A is too laid back and devoid of details, again.

Looks like I won't be giving up on the D3 just yet.

I realized my review of the D2.5A vs D3 wasn't ever finished. But that's not stopping me from writing this post.

For a few times I AB-ed between the D2.5A and D3 and the D2.5A constantly won. I decided to do it again today, with the same result, but with one more important observation:

There are people saying that the CS4398 chip is warmer. And then there are people saying that the AD1852 chip is warmer. They are both correct. So are the people saying that CS/AD has better bass and highs.

The conflicting accounts is due to different perception of warmth, good bass, and good highs.

With the AD1852 of the D2.5A, the sound is more mellow, laid-back. Some may refer to this as warm. With the CS4398 of the D3, the sound is more forward, there are more mids, and it sounds fuller also. Hence also warm.

And hence "warm" is an excuse of an answer to hide the fact that one doesn't have good enough hearing to listen out for specific qualities in audio, or to convince oneself that his system is good. ("Warm" is usually associated with good sound, as opposed to "cold")

Back to AD vs CS, this time the highs. The AD chip seems to have more a higher-reaching highs and more space compared to the CS chip which is more crowded. After a few listenings and some thinking I realized that it's the CS chip that has better highs instead. The AD, because of the more laid-back character, has some of the highs not able to be heard, and hence the feeling of a lower noise-floor, separation, greater extension, and more space. Up the 4-8khz spectrum on the AD chip a bit, and it sounds uncanningly similar to the CS, but still rather constipated. The CS just has too much detail compared to the AD. And this cannot be gotten back via equalization.

And so you realize that certain simlar reasoning can be used to explain the bass performance. Yup, because the AD chip has less mids, the bass sounds more and cleaner and extends more, but the CS chip has more impactful bass. Reason? The hitting (or tight) part of the bass spreads out over a range of frequencies in the mids, reaching above 125hz which would be crossover point for bass in a decent system (or 300hz for the not-so-decent, but never mind it reaches past that too).

Ignoring the sonic differences, the CS4398 is undoubtly the better of the two. But I'm guessing more people (including me) would prefer the AD's more musical character. The CS chip would be good for producing and monitoring though.

Onto the performance in the DACs and setup, taking into consideration the difference between the two DACs. The AD, having the OPA-Earth HDAM, has a big advantage. Else it wouldn't have been able to compete with the CS chip on the highs. So for a while I was hoping that with the OPA-Earth I might get the best of both worlds with the D3 - musical sound that is full of detail.

But one thing suggests that to be impossible. Because of the mids, the CS4398 sounds very constipated especially with a poor recording. It sounds muffled, the rusty-grainy-loud-high-frequency kind. The AD is also muffled, but the laid-back-gagged-in-the-mouth kind. The latter is definitely more pleasing. This is the CS4398's natural sound, because I didn't have any op-amp at the output this time round, and the OPA627 is fairly transparent. I remember what happened when I replaced my LM4562 with the OPA-Earth: sound is brought more forward, soundstage is flatter, not good in terms of space. And I'm not the only person with this observation. The ones that do not are the fanboys.

Hmm... maybe I should try back the LM4562s.

That means, if I try the OPA-Earth with the CS4398 D3, I'm going to get even more constipated sound. Since they will definitely amplify this weakness of each other.

That may explain why the modded (Zapfilter, OMZ) Zhaolus are better with the AD chip. Or sound better. Since they are all using discrete op-amp output.

So the modded chips "sound" good because of reasons stated above. Whether that is good or bad, you make the decision.

But I'll never be going to spend USD$599 on the OMZ.

The Zhaolu D3 is definitely a good DAC. At stock it's definitely worth the money ($299 in MO). It has a lot of performance, performing even somewhat close to the next-higher-class DACs. But it is sunk by the fact that it uses the CS4398 chip that sacrifices too much musical qualities for the details. What we need the next level is musical qualities + details, hence the Citypulse 2.03E using discrete output. In the meantime, look for an op-amp that will make the D3 sound more musical yet not remove it of its details (sorry no OPA-Moon here, if you're reading this. You know who I'm talking to).

Maybe LM4562 will make its reappearance.

Chibi dancers on Windows Media Player!

The full name is Musume Dancing Visualizer. Comes with the eroge むすめ～か～'s opening single むすめいく！ -musumake- by MOSAIC.WAV

Pictures below are from the trial version, it doesn't have Karin and Ichigo.



You can download the trial version from here. For those that do not understand Japanese and hence are saved from the Anime realm's evil, don't worry here is the direct link.

When people don't even have common-sense... let alone specific knowledge part II

From diyparadise:

"If you look at Charlize's competitors, they are mostly built using thru hole components rather than surface mounted components. What's the big deal you may ask? It's not a big deal if you love a higher noise floor. You see, we build using the more difficult-to-handle surface mounted components for sonic reasons and not for ease of manufacturing."


...except that no part of your product is surface-mounted. Even the amp chip is thru hole.

Good job marketing department, for criticizing your own product.

Source

Lets pay for wood!

(Pictures courtesy of 6moons.com, used without permission. If I told them what I was going to do with the photos they'd have stopped me. They're a (quote) "respectable reviewer" *wink wink*)

Original article here


So this thing costs ~USD$1000. Lets take a loog at what's inside.


This still looks uite okay, because of the transformers. But there's still some space that can be shaved.


There's a good reason why they want a close-up of the amplifier module. To make it look cool, well yea. With something so small if you don't zoom in there won't be anything left.

And what's with the Tripath logo on the chip?

Yes, this thing is using a Class-T amp! Class-T is a variant of Class-D, or switching amp.

If you are the high-class owner of this amp, I can understand why you're feeling this pain in your chest now and reaching for the heart-attack medicine.

But relax, according to 6moons here, the $39 Sonic Impact T-Amp using a Tripath chip sounds like a $3200 integrated would be unparalleled even for $390. Hey wait, the Charlize amplifier costs $340. And it uses the same or better chip. So who's lying?

BTW most China T-Amps can sound better than the Sonic Impact just from the looks of the internals alone. (You guys believe in looks, right?) But I'm not talking about this today.

So you've look at the inards. Now I'll mention their pricing again. It's $300 for the DAC, $430 for the volume control, and $340 for the amp.

Minus off the actual working components inside, how much does the wood cost?

The seller (DIY Paradise) is also willing to sell the modules separately, at $135, $260 and $110 respectively. So you can roughly calculate the cost of the wood, plus assembly. I am positive that the PCB module comes with all the components; I wouldn't spend $135 on an empty PCB.

This is not the first. The more famous one would have to be the Grado RA-1 headphone amplifier. This product is famous, good-branded, and well-known for the performance and quality and has received lots of positive reviews.

(Picture taken from diyaudioprojects.com)

Here is a totally unrelated link to nowhere

So, still got any consumer confidence left? I know Singaporeans have high consumer confidence compared to the rest of the world and even during the global recession, but you still shouldn't waste your money.

Also, making wood expensive is a good move to save trees and reduce global warming. You have to admit that the makers are eco-conscious. But then they shouldn't have even used wood in the first place. Oh wait, it's classy, so it makes it sound good, right?

One year anniversary

Actually I was supposed to post this yesterday but I forgot.

Amazing, my blog actually lasted that long. And I got IMHO quite a good number of total clicks. Not a lot compared to most blogs out there, but pretty good enough for such a blog.

Thanks and have another good year ahead.

It also became apparent that I spent too much on audio in the last year since I became an audiophile not too long ago lol.

ADD: Forgot to mention this is the 101th post too! That is, including all the drafts that were supposed to be up but haven't make it.