[Anthony1]

Quote:

 

 
@zachchen - not sure what to say other than good luck and I hope it works out for you 

 

[Kremer930]

I just had a good listen to the HE6 from my RX3 CLAS rig. I am impressed with the level of clarity and soundstage from a semi portable set-up. Well yes it is portable so long as you don't mind the sound leakage issues.

The details and texture in the music is really impressive and makes me long for the Schiit statement amp even more than I am already.

But the crunch is that the RX3 does not have enough power to drive the bass properly out of the HE6. I am not sure at what point the bass cuts out but it is certainly lacking compared to something like the Lyr. Things such as a kick drum are very well lacking. By pairing the HE6 to the RX3 you effectively turn your HE6 into something more like an Akg K702 etc. great detail but no real low bass and especially no impact.

I really love the RX3 and the HE6 but they are designed for different pairings.

I would also love to hear either the HE400 or HE500 from the Rx3. Now that could be a match made in heaven.

Please note that these are my impressions and YMMV. Cheers

 

[Audiocrack]

I just had a good listen to the HE6 from my RX3 CLAS rig. I am impressed with the level of clarity and soundstage from a semi portable set-up. Well yes it is portable so long as you don't mind the sound leakage issues.
The details and texture in the music is really impressive and makes me long for the Schiit statement amp even more than I am already.
But the crunch is that the RX3 does not have enough power to drive the bass properly out of the HE6. I am not sure at what point the bass cuts out but it is certainly lacking compared to something like the Lyr. Things such as a kick drum are very well lacking. By pairing the HE6 to the RX3 you effectively turn your HE6 into something more like an Akg K702 etc. great detail but no real low bass and especially no impact.
I really love the RX3 and the HE6 but they are designed for different pairings.
I would also love to hear either the HE400 or HE500 from the Rx3. Now that could be a match made in heaven.
Please note that these are my impressions and YMMV. Cheers

Thank you for the impressions, I don't suppose the bass knob is capable of remedying the problem? I'm currently trying the HE-500 which I'm borrowing, and it would be quite sad to lose the nice bass it has, but the sound of the HE-500 overall is just a tad too dark for me - it not much, but it's noticeable in some tracks where it just lacks the sparkle of fx. HD800, which I would think the HE-6 has... But if it significantly lacks tha bass punch of the HE-500 when not listening at home (on a speaker amp) then the HD800 might be a better choice. I just really like the solid feel of the way the HifiMans are built and the nice low end punch...

 

[Kremer930]

I tried the bass boost function to see if that would restore the lost octaves but it only helped marginally. It really did sound like the amp was reaching its limit.

 

[thread]

So I sent my Rx3 back to Ken last week asking if he could make the amp quiet with my IEMs. (I could even hear the noise with my HD 25-1 II and ESW10JPN headphones!) If it wasn't possible, I asked if I could just get the refund. Well, it's with much disappointment that I seem to have just received my refund.

I'm a bit perplexed with slwiser's report of absolute silence with his ES5 IEM's! ... I can't imagine those are hugely less sensitive than the headphones I'm using, so it seems that he got lucky with his unit somehow?

I'd love to jump back in and repurchase the amp, but it won't happen until I hear that the noise is vastly reduced.

Anyway, I appreciate the quick turnaround from ALO on my "return".

 

[slwiser]

Quote:

I'm a bit perplexed with slwiser's report of absolute silence with his ES5 IEM's! ... I can't imagine those are hugely less sensitive than the headphones I'm using, so it seems that he got lucky with his unit somehow?
 

I think that I still have some low hiss with my ES5s. The balance mode does seem to lower it some but during my first listen it must have been with a higher background noise that was masking the hiss that I hear now in a quieter environment.  Sorry for getting your hopes up.  I am keeping my Mk3 since I enjoy the sound and do not notice any hiss during the play of music.  But if you required dead quite for sensitive IEMs the Mk3 may not be for you.

 

[Kremer930]

Thread - Sorry to hear that Ken wasn't confident of being able to lower the noise floor to a level where you would be pleased.

I am just thinking back of all of my use of the Rx3 and I am surprised that I don't have the same issues when playing my JH16's. I would use these for 80% of my listening times. I remember yesterday listening to a song by Paul Potts called lift me up where I was conscious of the background hiss/noise but then I noticed that it must have been recorded into the song as parts of the breaks between verses was black and then when Paul would begin singing the increased noise floor would be back again. When the song ended the background was black again.

I am kind of stumped how mine can be ok and yours so bad that it wasnt correctable.

You may have mentioned this before but could I ask what components you were using in your rig?

This is a disappointing outcome for you I guess as the Rx3 is the best portable amp that I have ever used. There are not many times when a headfier thinks that he is at his end game rig but I am there...and it has been more than 3 weeks already.

 

[Kremer930]

I am stumped. I am now listening to some Angus and Julia Stone which is quiet and mellow track with just a single vocal and strumming of an acoustic guitar and the background is perfect. Are my ears deaf to high frequencies, are my JH16 not reproducing or could my rig be different in its output to what you were using? It would be great if you were able to listen to someone else's Rx3 rig to see if you got the same results.

I am now listening in a perfectly quiet environment at home before getting ready for work. If there was hiss then I would hear it.

 

[thread]

I was using the Ultra Micro DAC single ended input. I noticed, though, that even without any source connected, there was quite an apparent noise floor coming from both the single ended and balanced outputs... even at low gain with the volume all the way down. I expected it to at least be far quieter. (Yes, it did surprise me -- especially when I could hear it from my supraaural headphones as I mentioned.) Again, I have done professional work for Ray, so I apologize if folks feel I'm being biased here, but I absolutely find the background of the SR-71B to be entirely silent -- even with my JH13's.

I really enjoyed the sound signature of the Rx3, but the fact that I basically would never use it with my IEM's makes it a tough sell for me since they are a pretty important part of my sonic diet.

Edit: Right, Kremer. It really seems that there was something amiss with my unit. I really think you'd hear it if you had the same noise coming from your amp. I appreciate the report.

 

[Kremer930]

My main thoughts are of empathy for you Thread. To wait for such an anticipated amp and then arrive at this point must be annoying.

I have tried my jh16 plugged in with no source playing but still with the iPod and CLAS switched on and connected, and the volume of the rx3 at max and nothing. No noise floor at all. I agree that the initial part of the volume from 12-1am does have issues where there is significant channel imbalance and I can hear music playing even when the volume is at zero but I don't have any noise floor issues anywhere where I actually listen on the volume scale. Gain is on low of course.

 

[thread]

My main thoughts are of empathy for you Thread. To wait for such an anticipated amp and then arrive at this point must be annoying.
I have tried my jh16 plugged in with no source playing but still with the iPod and CLAS switched on and connected, and the volume of the rx3 at max and nothing. No noise floor at all. I agree that the initial part of the volume from 12-1am does have issues where there is significant channel imbalance and I can hear music playing even when the volume is at zero but I don't have any noise floor issues anywhere where I actually listen on the volume scale. Gain is on low of course.

Thank you for your words, Kremer. I really appreciate your comments.

It seems many folks are experiencing the noice floor issues I had while some do not. How confusing.

I assume Ken sat down and experimented with the amp I returned.. What say you, Ken? Did you hear the noise I'm describing? I can't help but postulate that the noise I heard could be related to the faulty balanced input my unit had...

To be perfectly clear, the channel imbalance is not a bother for me. The channels balanced out pretty much before I got to even my quiet listening level. We're just talking about the "noise floor", or noise that can be heard at any time when there is no music playing.

 

[Kremer930]

This will be an interesting one to see played out.  I would have thought that JH16 and JH13 would be extremely similar in loads that they present to the amp.  I must also add that 95% of my listeing has been via balanced output and that I have always used the single ended input from my CLAS.  I may try a line staright out from the ipod LOD and see what happens.

 

[SHAHZADA123]

Subscribed.
Mine should be arriving this evening. 
Am excited to try it in balanced mode with a pair of recabled HP2s
The RSA 71B is an excellent match so it would be interesting to see which one of these stays with the HP-2s.

 

[hop ham]

A lot of talk about the noise floor. I got my amp back from Ken a few days ago after he lowered the gain on the low setting. Using my JH16s (balanced and not) and FitEar 334s, the noise floor/ hiss has remained the same but I can turn the volume knob further before reaching my normal IEM listening level, which solves the channel imbalance problem. I think I'm only one of two people in this thread so far that had a serious issue with the volume getting too loud before being able to really tell if the channels were balanced, using sensitive IEMs. No longer. I can live with the hiss. While I would expect a product like this to be quieter (my RSA portable amps all have a black background), the sound is so damn good that I am willing to live with it. 
 
I don't know if it's product variance/ defects with certain units but I'm willing to guess it can also have something to do with the differences in how sensitive our hearing is.
 
Ken - thanks for everything. I'm happy.

 

[mcee]

Quote:

A lot of talk about the noise floor. I got my amp back from Ken a few days ago after he lowered the gain on the low setting. Using my JH16s (balanced and not) and FitEar 334s, the noise floor/ hiss has remained the same but I can turn the volume knob further before reaching my normal IEM listening level, which solves the channel imbalance problem. I think I'm only one of two people in this thread so far that had a serious issue with the volume getting too loud before being able to really tell if the channels were balanced, using sensitive IEMs. No longer. I can live with the hiss. While I would expect a product like this to be quieter (my RSA portable amps all have a black background), the sound is so damn good that I am willing to live with it. 
 
I don't know if it's product variance/ defects with certain units but I'm willing to guess it can also have something to do with the differences in how sensitive our hearing is.
 
Ken - thanks for everything. I'm happy.

 
After reading this, I am seriously deciding as to whether I should really send the amp back to Ken for lowering the gain on the low setting for my JH11s. I just can't listen to the amp with my JH11s at all at the moment (with single ended output), the channel imbalance between 1 to 2 o'clock bothers me too much and when I go over it, it is too loud. I can, so far, only use the MK3 in conjunction with my other cans, which really sucks because I do listen to my IEMs a lot on my other amp.
 
Do you know if I have to send it back within a set of time, and should I contact Ken directly? If so, where?
 
Cheers.