Reminiscing the past... when we spent little

Looking at Altec Lansing's catalogue, I suddenly remembered the days when MX5021 = the best in my mind. After reading lots of good comments on MX5021 I went down to Carrefour Suntec to have a listen, and wow, it was the closest to a fairly accurate sound signature I've ever heard with nice mids and lots of air.

Then before that, I was at Creative warehouse sale looking at Creative's new product, i-Trigue 2200, and was amazed by the clarity and the relatively ok amount of bass (as I thought at that time) for its price. All other 2.1 for the same price had puny satellites that sounded tinnish compared to this, and those that featured the same drivers as 2200 were much more expensive. (T20 wasn't out yet, but Vivid 60 was, and it was crap for the price)
And a short while later I was at Challenger Funan comparing it against VS4121, which didn't have as nice clarity but won a bit overall due to bass. (although recently I've found out that the 2200 can still have sufficient bass provided it is boosted high enough in the source signal)

Then after all this, I picked up a Sony subwoofer cheap at Cash Converters to supplement my i-Trigues, and realized that it has outputs for passive speakers. I placed an old bookshelf from an old Sharp hi-fi to boost the mids and to provide more "air". Soon, I found a pair of JBLs selling cheap and I bought them too. They ran alongside the i-Trigues for a while (with the i-Trigues providing the highs) until I decided that the i-Trigues are adding high-harsh and removed them.

And so, I entered the world of bookshelves, with a system that cost me $45 but can beat the crap out of MX5021

After that, all hell broke loose, and I didn't spend little anymore :p

Also, have you ever realized that, the higher we go in audio, the less improvement we get per upgrade?

More funny phrases off the net: Burn-in

This time we look at the term "Burn-in"

Actual phrases from a Jaben sales forum thread:

"It has already been fully burn in by me, more than 1200 hours."

"1200 hours of burn-in is priceless"

Capacitors only have a rated lifetime of the lower few-thousands in hours, the better ones getting 2000-3000 at their rated voltage. Now that may seem very little for something we use everyday for years, but fortunately for audio we are always using high-quality caps rated at overkill voltages (for our applications) so cap degradation doesn't occur within 5-10 years. Same goes for computers, and for both the only ones that actually die off are the power caps that are rated relatively close to their limit. I say relatively because most of the time the limit is still at least 1.5 times that of the applied voltage.

The Predator has a gigantic capacitor rated at 6.3V. While this should be quite all right for battery usage, USB 5V seems too close to the rated spec. Plus, that capacitor (same as the one in Tomahawk, featured in a previous post) doesn't look high-quality to me. This isn't gonna do it good in the long run.

So, now it's up to you to decide whether this is "burned-in" or "burned-out".

Define original...

Actual phrase from an Echo Loft ad:

"original BMB tweeter marantz made"

If Marantz made the tweeter, then is this originally BMB or Marantz?

If BMB did not produce this tweeter, will the same tweeter by Marantz be fake? Or does this original BMB product even exist?

And of course the most obvious point:

Buy speakers from brands that make their own drivers

Who uses BMB stuff anyway except in karaoke lounges and pubs, they're just Boom-Am-Boom

RSA Tomahawk Portable Headamp

After getting to see a picture of the innards in real life up close, I knew I just had to get the picture off the net.

And get it I did:



Source: http://hobbyroom.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2007-06-05

Erm, that's it? And this thing costs >$500? WTF?

My system's almost complete... yeah right

Sorry for the almost three weeks of disappearence. The past two weeks have been very busy; either fall-out late, or I was busy playing LaTale or surfing forums for an amp, or both.

LaTale, great game, rushed to level 19 on the first day as bowman. This game is about skill, there are lots of newbs who don't know how to train fast, seldom see those in JP/KR servers. But wtf they are going to do a character wipe again, what the hell are they thinking? Character wipe aftre OBT.

But enough about this game. I finally got a Yulong 2nd-hand after a guy offered one at $120.

So I fixed it up hoping for some magic. It is, after all, one of the best entry-level amps out there, capable of beating few-hundred dollars receivers. I also expected some loss in bass power since my JBLs are only 3-inch, but this amp should have enough power for the Paradigm Atoms (v1) that have been lying useless on my table all this while, and those are 5.5-inchers, so bass is no problem.

Fixed it up, well, the sound is much clearer, but,

Where's the bass?

I'd expect the bass to be a little bit greater. Although they aren't as big as monitors at least they are at least a few times bigger than multimedia speakers. Or maybe I've grown to like the Sony SRS-D4 active sub too much.

And the next thing, this amp revealed that my JBL CS100 are not just bad, they are faulty - they whine and one of them sounds different from the other; previously I blamed the SRS-D4, but looks like it's alright.

And the worst thing is:

So I fixed up the Paradigm Atoms thinking I'll get some nice stopping point in upgrade. But no, it just confirmed my Atoms are faulty with a great loss of power at the lower frequencies plus lots of distortion. Time to get rid of them.

That time somebody was talking about component synergy on VRZ, now I totally agree. The 3-inch drivers of the CS100 are not designed to be full-range, they need a subwoofer with them, and with the right one they really shine. No wonder they are labelled "surrounds". Interesting, because all this while I have been getting very good sound signature out of this $45 setup, but the moment I have them alone they sound like crap. Looks like my SRS-D4 isn't simple either - somehow in this setup, the CS100 sound totally nice and punchy and the bass feels like it's coming from there. What is happening? Perhaps one day I'll get the power button repaired also.

I also found out that "boomy bass that feels like it has a lot of space" is due to feeding too much bass into a driver that cannot handle it, NOT a good effect or strong bass. So stop it Bose owners, your speakers sux, it's not a good sound.

With nothing to lose, I also took apart the Paradigm Atoms, only to find that the foam on the cones are gone, deed, deadmeat. Probably the reason why they sounded so sux. Maybe I should get it repaired, as long as it doesn't cost over a hundred.

Zhaolu D2.5 w/LM4562 vs NeoMini USBDAC - some thoughts

Today I decided to do a direct AB test with my Zhaolu D2.5 w/LM4562 against NeoMini USBDAC.

Reason because somehow, because of my further-degrading hearing or running around with the Zhaolu and subjecting it to the physical abuse at the guardroom (I haven't blog about these yet), or some problem with the reconnection, the Zhaolu didn't sound as nice as it was yesterday night compared to morning.

Fearing there would be some actual sonic damage instead of placebo effects, I decided to fight it against the previously-defeated NeoMini in a direct AB comparison and use this as a measure.

Results are interesting.

Sound signature-wise, I can hear almost no difference. The sound so just the same that if you didn't know the two DACs beforehand or cannot hear the other minute differences you're sure to mix up the ABX test.

Or heck, if my setup doesn't let me switch sources in less than 0.2 seconds I probably wouldn't have detected any obvious difference either.

Everything that counts are the rest - the Zhaolu w/LM4562 has a bigger soundstage, the instruments are more pulled back (or the NeoMini is more forward), less muffled, bass more impactful, lower bass extension. But, with the exception of the lower bass extension, the differences are very small, way smaller than comparing on-board against NeoMini (that one was pretty bad), and should be smaller than NeoMini vs Audigy if my memories are correct. Even the bass extension, while that one is more obvious because you will hear it when the bass notes go low, most of the time they don't so it doesn't make much of a difference.

There's still one obvious difference though - highs response

The Zhaolu is still undoubtedly cleaner and the sound reverbs a bit, while for the NeoMini there's still some distortion and the hi-hats/cymbals sound "less round", or, the most abused term in audio vocabulary, "flat". But more "hissing" and less dynamics and space is a better description for it, if you ask me.

So some findings and some thoughts from this AB test:

- Since the Zhaolu w/LM4562 and NeoMini share the same sound signature, there's high chance that they're both just darn accurate. But then again, probably many other DACs do, but that's not a majority if you consider the number of warm-sounding Burr-Brown op-amps out there.
- The LM4562 is one heck of an accurate op-amp - the NeoMini has no op-amp, yet the LM4562 sounds so similar. This is probably why it's so popular in soundcards also.
- The designers of the Zhaolu also did a great job - audio equipment is all about how well your components work with each other, and with the default settings + LM4562 op-amp the sound is so neutral and accurate. With the output capacitors jumpered it was too bright even with the OPA2604. So yea guys, don't try the jumper mod unless you're a purist or an "audiophile". I'm not the only one who hates it anyway; so did the guys who found and tried out many mods for the Zhaolu.
- Using an external DAC with bad cabling and digital source is a big no-no. Reason because I could hear a significant difference between the on-board Realtek and Audigy and between the cheapo $7 cable, the supplied stock cable, and the current Belden 1694A. And if my current setup sounds only okay, then previously it has to be very bad.
- The NeoMini is a seriously good buy for the money. At $35/55 (Taiwan price/local price), plus soldering skill and time and casing, it put up a good fight against another bang-for-buck ~$200 equipment, and that's not including the additional cost of the Belden 1694A and Audigy.
But if you ask me, if I'd sell my Zhaolu and get back the money spent and use the more value-for-money NeoMini instead, I'd totally say no. Because the impact of the improvement with the Zhaolu is just too awesome, more awesome than that with the NeoMini from Audigy. Yes I can't pinpoint the differences, but all the subtle things add together to form something awesome.
Plus, you can't put a price on better sound. :D
In a sense in this case the NeoMini is a poorer buy for the money because it didn't seem that powerful worthy of an upgrade. But if you have an on-board and want something cheap and small and stick with it then it's your choice. :)
- The one thing that's been pulling back my Zhaolu - the $7 interconnect cable. Since the audio system will only sound as good as its weakest link, this guy is probably the culprit (I used the same type of cable for both DACs). A better cable will probably improve the Zhaolu's performance, as well as that of the NeoMini. Time to get the 89207.