[subguy812]

Wow, @flinkenick and @Wyville on the same page at the same time again! A pleasure!

So, Nic, I have heard very good things about the Final ZE8000 wireless earbuds (around $299, could be less on sale, used etc).
Some exciting hi-res sound if the hype is to be believed!

There's a few reviews here on Head-Fi, and here's the link if you'd like to check them out.
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/final-ze8000.26231/

I'd love to hear them myself, but basically have zero use case for wireless and never use it, so not worth the purchase for me personally
I did review their ZE3000 wireless earbuds previously ($149 or less if I recall correctly), and was quite astonished at how good they sounded for the price, if that helps.
These new ones should, by all accounts, be an order of magnitude better

Anyway, good to see you all and hope you find what you're looking for

I have really been active on the TWS front, especially since prices have become ridiculous on the wired IEM front.

I think the ZE8000 are good as well. I returned them after two weeks. At first the fit is strange until you learn not to fight with them and go with a shallow fit. To me the sq quality was not on par with the B&O EX or the Nuratrue Pro. That said the ZE8000 have quite a following, so it is very subjective.

Nuratrue Pro has some connectivity issues in some units and that was an issue I was having.

I have a Technics AZ80 incoming and certainly have my eye on the Sony XM5 when it hits.

 

[flinkenick]

Thanks guys! Interesting to hear that the Apple Airpods are good enough, was not expecting them to be up to par with more audiophile brands. I prefer Android TBH, but am planning to get an Iphone when I get back since friends tell me that it has advantages when you're already using a Mac. Plus I can get a pretty good tax write-off on it as a freelancer so it's worth the investment

Is it?
Can it be true?
I think it is...
He's alive!!!


How are you Nic? Long time no see! (Not that I am around here that much these days. )

Life is all good on this end.

Man that looks amazing! Must be beautiful to live so close to nature. I thought you had quit the forum a long time ago, is it hard to detach from the forum or is it just a coincidence in timing we're both here

I've been good, I'm just all-consumed by work last years. But I really enjoy the job, plus I can take off for 2 months now when I please to bring back some balance

 

[rantng]

I’m curious about the HiFiMan Svanar Wireless which won’t be out until June. It has a fairly hefty price tag of $499, but is packed with features including an R2R DAC in each earphone.

 

[yaps66]

I’m curious about the HiFiMan Svanar Wireless which won’t be out until June. It has a fairly hefty price tag of $499, but is packed with features including an R2R DAC in each earphone.

I'm curios too!

 

[Scorpio1957]

I'm curios too!

Here you go guys,

 

[MikePortnoy]

Hello guys,

A new monitor is coming from Spiral Ear, ''the Nebula''

Here is my preview

https://theheadphonelist.com/spiral-ear-se5-way-nebula-preview/

 

[Wyville]

Hello guys,

A new monitor is coming from Spiral Ear, ''the Nebula''

Here is my preview

https://theheadphonelist.com/spiral-ear-se5-way-nebula-preview/

First we see Nic popping back in and now you...

I sort of forgot about Spiral Ear because they only made CIEMs and I understood those couldn't be made to fit my ears, at least the SE 5-way Ultimate, but just checking their website I see they actually have universal IEMs on offer now. Very nice! That means I might have a chance to hear them one day (I could never get Nic's CIEMs to fit, so borrowing his was not an option).

 

[574206]

Wow, I get to many thanks a few posters that had a major influence in my Arc. Your like my 'Suge Knight' partner in crime. I never thought I would have the opportunity and you posters would be gone in Internet History like NetScape.

First Nic, FU and the clique you claim. You got me back in my Groove when I was lost. I got to streamline my gear and not have to deal with all the 'Mickey Mouse' cables out there. I standardised on a Split "Perfectly Neutral" Black SilverFi R4 w/ WBT RCA with a Split Black SilverFi R9 w/ WBT RCA on the way. I'm looking forward to your Black SilverFi R7 review, but I already got a sneak preview (MP, yay!, your private review makes it sound like a work of European Art). I actually have two Black SilverFi R4 w/ WBT RCA. A Split for perfect "Zero Crosstalk" imaging. Picture if you were assembling Speakers, you would not 3.5mm to L+R Speakers. You would L RCA to L Speaker and R RCA to R Speaker for optimal imaging and soundstage. Beautiful for Gaming. I also have a Non-Split SilverFi R4 w/ WBT too for my future transportable Steam Deck OLED project. I also run SuperClocks/FPGA Source w/ low latency realtime audio kernel which gives perfect Bass quality, Voice Quality, Spatial Information, Soundstage and Imaging. Only a few people know how to assemble like the owners of Sonore Audio and Uptone Audio so it's an exclusive group. But I put SuperClocks 1A and FPGA DAC 1B in order of importance in the chain. I hope I can demo to you one day. The above mentioned owners of the highly-regarded high-end Audiophile shops gave it a WOW, so I'm hoping to get a "It's okay" out of you. Oh, and the transient response is crazy quick because that's where WBT excels. There's a reason why WBT is paired on the World's finest Speakers. So you give it super low impedence and latency throughout the chain and not bottleneck with WBT let's transient response go wild. Also, I mainly run the best well-mastered sources so guaranteed Euphoria. I still have your e-mail.



For planned obsolesce once the Hugo₃ is released, I plan to attach my Hugo₂ on the back of a Steam Deck OLED. The custom USB cable will be solid core wiring so performance should be good with zero RFI/EMI. With Solid Core, there's no where for RFI/EMI to enter since it's solid; it can't sneak in like with traditional wiring. Since I only run low latency realtime systems for Audio, I plan to install a low latency realtime kernel on the Steam Deck. That's how I currently game on a PC ATM. The Black SilverFi R4 w/ WBT RCA is terrific with a FPGA DAC (USB Optical Cable power by SuperCapactitors) and I hope to replicate for Transportable.

Portable Sources are too weak to even consider. I rather watch Super Loud Youtube Advertisements than to listen to the portable sources available. Damn, they make those Youtube Advertisements Videos so loud. Reminds me of MP3 days.

I'm happy to just listen to lossless Blu-Ray Videos and compressed mixtapes with the Apple Dongle for portable. The portable environment is just not controllable for serious listening. Too many external factors. Sometimes, lossless music. I need to take phone / VOIP calls, so I use isolating Aviator headphones over my CIEMs with a lossless Mic. It's optional, but handy. No headphone drivers. Sorry for the bad photo quality, the flash auto went off so grainy. It was my first iteration, so I'm smooth out the headphone cups better the next go around. Without the flash, the graininess is not that noticeable. So CIEMs about -26db plus isolating headphones about -26to30db. It's not Sound Proof or double the -db, but Sound Dampening.





^ There's ear gel pads and cloth headphone pads which I removed for photo so it's comfortable and doesn't damage the CIEMs. I just wanted to show the innards.

This Summer, I'm adding additional Super Capacitors to my chain. I need a few more years to Super Cap the whole chain.



Anyways, I hope you got to explore Singapore. Must of been a big change from Europe.


MikePortnoy, you are a legend. Thank you for all your SilverFi reviews. It really helped me to place my focus since I have high standards. I initially thought you were the "Colourful Tonality" poster but that was "Dan E". Colourful Tonality (Dan E) with Perfect Neutrality (Nic) is how I would describe SilverFi. SilverFi is also releasing a new Black portable cable this Summer, but I'm done with portable so I passed / punted. There's basically zero information besides Nic on SilverFi back in the day, so I read your posts religiously. Thank you for being a Pioneer.


Wyville, still playing FallOut? I've been having fun with trying out how different game sounds with a Split SilverFi R4. The right-side is being repaired (photo above), so I only have a photo of the left-side. I miss the Split R4 dearly for Gaming purposes. I definitely cannot live without. I'll check out FallOut is it's on the Steam Summer Sale.

Anyways, I'll check back after Independence Day as I'm going to focus on assembling Super Capacitors. It's dangerous so I need to give it proper attention.

Oh, Shout Out to Vin Deezel too.

 

[Wyville]

Wow, I get to many thanks a few posters that had a major influence in my Arc. Your like my 'Suge Knight' partner in crime. I never thought I would have the opportunity and you posters would be gone in Internet History like NetScape.

First Nic, FU and the clique you claim. You got me back in my Groove when I was lost. I got to streamline my gear and not have to deal with all the 'Mickey Mouse' cables out there. I standardised on a Split "Perfectly Neutral" Black SilverFi R4 w/ WBT RCA with a Split Black SilverFi R9 w/ WBT RCA on the way. I'm looking forward to your Black SilverFi R7 review, but I already got a sneak preview (MP, yay!, your private review makes it sound like a work of European Art). I actually have two Black SilverFi R4 w/ WBT RCA. A Split for perfect "Zero Crosstalk" imaging. Picture if you were assembling Speakers, you would not 3.5mm to L+R Speakers. You would L RCA to L Speaker and R RCA to R Speaker for optimal imaging and soundstage. Beautiful for Gaming. I also have a Non-Split SilverFi R4 w/ WBT too for my future transportable Steam Deck OLED project. I also run SuperClocks/FPGA Source w/ low latency realtime audio kernel which gives perfect Bass quality, Voice Quality, Spatial Information, Soundstage and Imaging. Only a few people know how to assemble like the owners of Sonore Audio and Uptone Audio so it's an exclusive group. But I put SuperClocks 1A and FPGA DAC 1B in order of importance in the chain. I hope I can demo to you one day. The above mentioned owners of the highly-regarded high-end Audiophile shops gave it a WOW, so I'm hoping to get a "It's okay" out of you. Oh, and the transient response is crazy quick because that's where WBT excels. There's a reason why WBT is paired on the World's finest Speakers. So you give it super low impedence and latency throughout the chain and not bottleneck with WBT let's transient response go wild. Also, I mainly run the best well-mastered sources so guaranteed Euphoria. I still have your e-mail.



For planned obsolesce once the Hugo₃ is released, I plan to attach my Hugo₂ on the back of a Steam Deck OLED. The custom USB cable will be solid core wiring so performance should be good with zero RFI/EMI. With Solid Core, there's no where for RFI/EMI to enter since it's solid; it can't sneak in like with traditional wiring. Since I only run low latency realtime systems for Audio, I plan to install a low latency realtime kernel on the Steam Deck. That's how I currently game on a PC ATM. The Black SilverFi R4 w/ WBT RCA is terrific with a FPGA DAC (USB Optical Cable power by SuperCapactitors) and I hope to replicate for Transportable.



Portable Sources are too weak to even consider. I rather watch Super Loud Youtube Advertisements than to listen to the portable sources available. Damn, they make those Youtube Advertisements Videos so loud. Reminds me of MP3 days.

I'm happy to just listen to lossless Blu-Ray Videos and compressed mixtapes with the Apple Dongle for portable. The portable environment is just not controllable for serious listening. Too many external factors. Sometimes, lossless music. I need to take phone / VOIP calls, so I use isolating Aviator headphones over my CIEMs with a lossless Mic. It's optional, but handy. No headphone drivers. Sorry for the bad photo quality, the flash auto went off so grainy. It was my first iteration, so I'm smooth out the headphone cups better the next go around. Without the flash, the graininess is not that noticeable. So CIEMs about -26db plus isolating headphones about -26to30db. It's not Sound Proof or double the -db, but Sound Dampening.





^ There's ear gel pads and cloth headphone pads which I removed for photo so it's comfortable and doesn't damage the CIEMs. I just wanted to show the innards.

This Summer, I'm adding additional Super Capacitors to my chain. I need a few more years to Super Cap the whole chain.



Anyways, I hope you got to explore Singapore. Must of been a big change from Europe.


MikePortnoy, you are a legend. Thank you for all your SilverFi reviews. It really helped me to place my focus since I have high standards. I initially thought you were the "Colourful Tonality" poster but that was "Dan E". Colourful Tonality (Dan E) with Perfect Neutrality (Nic) is how I would describe SilverFi. SilverFi is also releasing a new Black portable cable this Summer, but I'm done with portable so I passed / punted. There's basically zero information besides Nic on SilverFi back in the day, so I read your posts religiously. Thank you for being a Pioneer.


Wyville, still playing FallOut? I've been having fun with trying out how different game sounds with a Split SilverFi R4. The right-side is being repaired (photo above), so I only have a photo of the left-side. I miss the Split R4 dearly for Gaming purposes. I definitely cannot live without. I'll check out FallOut is it's on the Steam Summer Sale.

Anyways, I'll check back after Independence Day as I'm going to focus on assembling Super Capacitors. It's dangerous so I need to give it proper attention.

Oh, Shout Out to Vin Deezel too.

Is that you Chip? Great to see you pop up again!

Gaming is a bit slow at the moment, although I am trying to get back into it. Especially looking forward to Starfield being released in September. Of course I will need to find a solution because I am still gaming on a PS4 (ie. no Starfield). Very tempted by the new Asus ROG Ally and switching back to PC gaming.

 

[Kerouac]

Just checked this thread and it feels like stepping into some kinda time machine

Me? I'm still having fun listening with both headphones and IEMs over here...


Especially some cable rolling absorbed most of my listening time this week(end)

Good to see ya'all around here (hopefully) safe and doing well!!!

 

[574206]

I decided to take some photos of the Ear Gel and Cotton Covering this morning of my Aviation Ear Muffs as the photos above look uncomfortable.

I hate headphones overall and can never wear for more than one hour, but these Aviation are quite comfortable with the padded headband and ear gels.

I hate universals too as after 15 minutes, they will fall out. So my choices are limited to CIEM-only which is perfectly fine with me.

The Cotton Covering protects the CIEMs well.

The Apple Watch is nice too as you can control Video, Music and phone calls while having a wired system. It's difficult to justify a portable dedicated audio system these days with the SQ not far off from a Apple Dongle.

I don't know if I can get this setup to work with the Apple Vision Pro.

 

[574206]

Is that you Chip? Great to see you pop up again!

Gaming is a bit slow at the moment, although I am trying to get back into it. Especially looking forward to Starfield being released in September. Of course I will need to find a solution because I am still gaming on a PS4 (ie. no Starfield). Very tempted by the new Asus ROG Ally and switching back to PC gaming.

Great to see you too. I am suprised as you with Nic and MikePortnoy posting. I'm back mainly to motivate myself to complete my Summer Power Supply Project and Chord threads. I moved on from anything portable a long time ago once COVID hit. But the Summit-Fi Chord threads their chains are so generic, so I'm just throwing out the idea of Super Capacitor Power because it's Off Grid, Off of Mains which gives really low noise floor and Zero RFI/EMI. It's a whole other experience when it's Super Quiet and you can listen to all the dynamics at a very low volume. I'm building a 3000 Farad Power Supply for my Hugo₂ this Summer and a 9000 Farad Super Capacitor next Summer for my SuperClocks (currently Battery-powered @ 17V).

So I wasn't planning on posting here, but I'll never have the opportunity again to thank the posters that guided me on the right path and not throw Cash around with products I would never of been happy with... Nic especially knew me more than I knew myself on what I wanted at that time. I'm only now realising after I worked on improving to a Modern chain and doing serious listening. Without a Modern chain, it's just Generic and Above Average. With a Modern chain, everything is very precise and realistic sounding.

Starfield is getting Review bombed, but I'm keeping an eye out on that too. I was considering the Asus ROG Ally too because it has a Zen processor like the Steam Deck. With the Zen, I already have optimised low latency realtime kernel OOTB. I try to be Anti-Consumerism, so I want to see value and convergence in products. For Ally/Steam Deck, I want to be able to use it as a high-end DAP, Video Player and for Gaming not to mention emulation. So I don't think a single game such as Starfield is worth investing in more hardware.

Anyways, I'll check back here one more tyme after my Summer Project is completed in July. I don't have the energy for his hobby, but I find spurts like a Summer Project to temp visit. I still can't believe Nic posted on this thread, it does feel like a Time Machine.

 

[574206]

Hey Wyville, really good briefly chatting up with you again. Please forgive, my memory, wallet and immune system is on low battery these days. Just enough to focus on a Summer Project and remembering good tymes chatting up in the past and that's it...

MikePortnoy, I noticed you had a interest in the Tera Player in the Classifieds. I was going to warn you about the output impedance but I see you went through your Tera Player stage already like I. That 10 & 20 Ohm output is a real pain as you need to apply that x8 rule to avoid potential high/low roll-off. So 80 - 160 Ohm IEMs are rare, but you seemed to match well with Spiral Ear at one tyme so Good Luck on the second ARC.

The Tera Player was a great learning experience though. I think that's why I keep my chain so tight in the milliohms. I won't even risk going to 1 Ohm anywhere. For example, I'm making Cooper Washers right now for my Power Supply and I worry too about the milliohms. That's why I won't even consider a Chord TT2 because it has a resistor on the headphone output which can possibly cause Output Impedance issues. The RCA OUT on the Chord TT2 would probably be too powerful if I avoid the resistor that way.

The Tera Player also inspired me to want to build Chuck's Attraction R2R DAC / AMP with a Car Battery, but I never got around to it because of possible Ohm Impendance issues. But it did help inspire my current Hugo₂ chain which is milliohms throughout from end to end. But of course, I'll always be curious how Chuck's Attraction would of sounded.

Out

 

[Kerouac]

So, as this has become some sort of 'time machine' thread. Maybe some of you oldies remember that many years ago there was some 'Rickrolling' going on over here? And I even think that Nic was the one who started that. Now I'm not going to start that all over again. But I have to say that after this (Gastonbury) weekend my opinion on Rick Astley has completely changed.

First of all: I recorded all the Glasonbury shows that were shown on the BBC, so I could check them out whenever I had the time. It started with Rick observing 'The Hives' performing and saying ''Now this is Rock and Roll!" and I think he already was right about that. Then, at his own performance he took a seat behind the drumkit and he started playing 'Highway to Hell' from AC/DC. Once again I was highly surpised (in a positive way).

But when I saw him later on that weekend playing with a band, performing a selection of (imo legendary) The Smiths songs...



... then I realised: Rick Really Rocks!!!

Sometimes your perspective on something or somebody in life can change a 180 degrees. This was one of these moments

Regarding the above DIY project: last week I picked up a (probably one of a kind) prototype tube amplifier. The seller found it in a recording studio stockroom and had no clue about the background story of this amp at all, but he told me that it sounded clean (no hum) when he tried it...


Information on Dynaudio (high quality speakers) was easy to find, but there was no information to be found on this amp at all. I hope that someone at Dynaudio was trying to make their speakers to sound (it has RCA in + out on the back, so it can also be used as a pre-amplifier) as good as possible and didn't save costs on the used components and tubes. Looking at the cable part connected to the adapter, this was probably also some kind of DIY project at some time. It should arrive today, so I'm curious how it will sound (I will probably only use it as a headphone amp) on my desktop later on

Oh, and I also have a prototype IEM cable overe here atm, which is a very interesting one to say at least...


For more info on that one, please check out this post(s) in another thread.
Checking out now (lots of other things to do) => cheers and have a great day!

 

[Deezel177]

So, as this has become some sort of 'time machine' thread. Maybe some of you oldies remember that many years ago there was some 'Rickrolling' going on over here? And I even think that Nic was the one who started that. Now I'm not going to start that all over again. But I have to say that after this (Gastonbury) weekend my opinion on Rick Astley has completely changed.

First of all: I recorded all the Glasonbury shows that were shown on the BBC, so I could check them out whenever I had the time. It started with Rick observing 'The Hives' performing and saying ''Now this is Rock and Roll!" and I think he already was right about that. Then, at his own performance he took a seat behind the drumkit and he started playing 'Highway to Hell' from AC/DC. Once again I was highly surpised (in a positive way).

But when I saw him later on that weekend playing with a band, performing a selection of (imo legendary) The Smiths songs...



... then I realised: Rick Really Rocks!!!

Sometimes your perspective on something or somebody in life can change a 180 degrees. This was one of these moments

Regarding the above DIY project: last week I picked up a (probably one of a kind) prototype tube amplifier. The seller found it in a recording studio stockroom and had no clue about the background story of this amp at all, but he told me that it sounded clean (no hum) when he tried it...


Information on Dynaudio (high quality speakers) was easy to find, but there was no information to be found on this amp at all. I hope that someone at Dynaudio was trying to make their speakers to sound (it has RCA in + out on the back, so it can also be used as a pre-amplifier) as good as possible and didn't save costs on the used components and tubes. Looking at the cable part connected to the adapter, this was probably also some kind of DIY project at some time. It should arrive today, so I'm curious how it will sound (I will probably only use it as a headphone amp) on my desktop later on

Oh, and I also have a prototype IEM cable overe here atm, which is a very interesting one to say at least...


For more info on that one, please check out this post(s) in another thread.
Checking out now (lots of other things to do) => cheers and have a great day!

I feel sorry for artists like Rick Astley or Nicolas Cage who become "memes" larger than themselves that they struggle to get out of. It's always beautiful to see them outgrow that shadow and prove that they have (and have always had) the raw talent to shine on their own terms. The cream always rises to the top.