It does and the duo played my iems just fine. The way I listen I should probably get a similar devices. I love the Qudelix but I do not do tons of portable listening.
Does anyone know the relationship or balance between power and negative gain for IEMs? E.g., is it beneficial for the sound quality to always feed more power, even if it means you use a lot of negative gain to avoid hitting the noise floor? Or is it better to just feed less power and don’t use negative gain? I mean, most non-planar IEMs are happy with power and voltage faarrrr less than full-sized headphones, right?
No hiss. Topping sauce. No hiss on sa-1 as well and tested wirh zen pro that is a pain to not hiss.
In other news…
Negative gain is useful for iems because you want to have more precise control over the volume. Where increasing it doesnt take it from 0 - 100db instantly.
The rule I have is to increase the gain if you use over 50% of the volume, to make it have sufficient headroom.
They need current, not much voltage specifically, when it comes to low resistance stuff like iems.
Hiss is also mostly affected by the ouput impedance, topping stuff is usually close to 0.1 ohm, so its not an issue here.
Thanks for all the answers!
Hmm yeah, ifi ZEN DAC says <1 Ohm, while ifi ZEN CAN (amp) has been measured to be around 0.5 Ohm, so if I had the full stack then maybe it’d be better. It’s ok, just a mild hiss for Olina and Canon (nothing on S12 - planars, pretty cool).
You know which set I don’t have any issues with in terms of noise floor?
Cant you use the power match? Olina loves power, strange. I run it on hissy sources and it’s clean.
Power match of ifI works against you, as it is simply a gain switch (with power match engaged you have in fact higher gain setting on). You want to have as low gain as possible for very sensitive IEMS to work in usable power output range of amplifier (SNR is typically lowest in very low ranges of output power, then it is getting higher and higher up to moment when it clips (be careful, it is very oversimplified picture))
I am not sure whether the statement of hiss being mainly a function of output impedance is correct and I think it is common misconception in audio world. This one eight rule is not about hiss directly
I don’t have IEM match on ifi ZEN DAC
there are other factors of course, but OI is the easiest to spot.
I mean as far as I know OI has nothing to do with hiss in principle. It is better to check SINAD @ low voltage (like this 50mV that ASR measures)
Yes I also love my Kinda Lava anyhow, but, on some tracks it is lacking on bass and I would appreciate more subbass.
Luckily I got the ifi go blu which solves the problem. X-Bass kicks ass!
gotcha - I don’t find it lacking mid-bass and for genres that need more sub-bass rumble I’ll swap to something else. Just goes to show we all hear differently, have different libraries etc. As many smarter than me have said before I’m trying to focus on listening to the music instead of the gear
Speaking of the devil… All this talk made me pull out my gear while I enjoy some croatian sun and sea.
If somebody ever doubts what my preferences are, this is it. Resin Kinda Lava, Pure Heroin album and blast that volume while the holographic stage takes care of the rest.
This is it boys. Here comes the rec and the Tea Cult stamp of approval.
Get it before it’s too late.
Will come back soon with more impressions. Zen Pro and Vernus are on my crosshair, but for now, another swim in the ocean.
Best,
nymz, the pale
Enjoy!
(skipping Royals? )
Almost always
@nymz I loved the KL but, the fit didn’t cut it for me. Had now idea they could be reshelled before I sold them. Now I’m looking at all the combos. I’m having such a hard time deciding on which colors. Don’t know if I want to go more subtle or more unique and slightly flashy.
check the EJ07M thread - a few posts with different resin designs in there, including my stealth version. I’ll dig out the shell/faceplate codes I went with.
I have the codes. I’m just so torn on what to choice. Will check the thread though.
Yap, my major problem with original EJ07m was the fit. It was the iem I tip rolled more until this day. I tried it all.
Resin helps. The oval nozzle is not the greatest to tip roll, but fit is much better.
Regarding choices, I always go full stealth as I dont like to draw much attention to it. I use iems everyday and everywhere you can think of, as long as my gf lets me