Fiio DAC for my PC

 

 

 

It was very long times that my laptop soundcard was too annoying to my ears. I have a rich collection of headphones used with it but nearly all of them except  the Silvercrest and another cheapy but better version of the marhsall model offers still quite good sound

Silvercrest is surely better but the wel known German giga market chain seems they stopped to offer them in their  ranks !  I m not 100 sure but as far as the chain distributes their weekly bulletin there is nothing fond inside for more than 40 weeks over this ear!

 

The problem with the soundcard is that the sound is mysteriously bassy in a way that the mid basses are higher then expected  resulting into a headache as  time passes  

I finally decide to find a solution Looked again some older issues of  a greek  audio magazine and read once again the series of iFi Audio  models .I was also enthused that they more recently made a cheaper series of their Zen can models into the margin  prices of the 100

I was very much deciding to buy one of them and visited a audio shop in the city He is one of the many sellers offering  these models

Long discussion and inspection of the model iFi Audio ZEN Air CAN , it is not offering any power adaptor except an external,  full sinusoidal  charger at a price  of around 120 Eu . But the main reason is that the model can be charged directly from the computer via a standard USB A plug to USB B plug

Just before buying it I have seen the FiiO E10k type-c usb model just before his monitor and looked well into the box with less than the half of size. Quite slim an easy to put in the pocket !

-Its price is the same !
-OK then man I will buy it !

Finally I took that and tested 6 hours later even if I was very much curious to test it

A few minutes after I was very curious if there Is really a C to C cable jumper as the model had a male C to male USB jumper  only. The neighbor shown me a model and immediately took one

….

6 hours later

The connection was very easy and straight through. In just half minute the DAC was recognized by the Win 10 system and worked OK with not any problems except that the sound card is disabled 

-Hmm as the iFi  warned 

 

All the above is not fiction but my real story on how i came to find out the mot appropriate model for my laptop. He also proposed that the IFI  Zen is more appropriate for HIFi systems  than just headphones. He was also quite interesting to advise on headphones ec , a story which will  be noted in the bottom on this page

The DAC is simple enough The pot is also a on off switch  with levels between 1to 8 and a bass enhance on the front panel  together with the audio socket for 3,5 mm 

ad this is the rear of the DAC with two outs , line and coaxial,  and a gain level that increases the sound level BTW as you can see i used a Inkax c to c jumper that is other than what the technician offered me because the socket is too stiff  because it never used before. the Inkax  plug connects easier 

now the results: 

(1)the sound is softer and better but rather neutral. I can also use some bass without affecting my head or mind but sometimes gets boring especially if iuse it with quite sharp sounds as the SDRconsole 

(2) there is not battery built in though i thin that it could help a little 

(3) as noticed above powering it in stops the inner sound card . A few audio programs as Total recorder lose the sound by this piping

(4) I made 3 screenshots form audacity that show what happens using the inner sound card and the liner Fiio DAC using a external Q3 recorder from Tecsun encoded in MP3 format 128kb/32kHz.

program curve	Fiio out	laptop earphone

 Just watch  above the two resulted curves The PC headphone out explains why my head  'gets as marmalade'. If supposedly the Fiio use a linear response the the ears jack shows a increase on the 80-300 Hz by 6 db and some little above the the 4 kHz 

Finally after discussing in reddit the bassy problem has been solved. Dolby was activated long ago and dis-activated it from  the settings menu  after a lengthy process . 

Here is the final results after using the method above :
At left original audio - middle the line out - right the FiiO out, There was a small fault whiele connecting the cable to FiiO : quite loose so the left channel was not properly connected .Also the volume was not so high as with  the laptops even if both were after-normalized

Noise length  3 minutes WAV mode.

I both there is a slight loss in the higher frequencies.

 

Inkax HiFI model

 Just in short again this time with the hope to do some more response analysis later

This is the inverse of the so famous V monk model by frequency response . The model  can be found very easily in  the local market from the local importer and distributor . Though very cheap at price just 8.5  Eu i is the biggest model in its category. Tested with the Sound magic  10 E (flatshaped reponse  for the type) its curve shows much increase above the 1 kHz without getting too sibilant . The sponges increase the  basses towards the AKG DJ 81 curve giving a much better U shaped  sound response  .

In contrast  the V monk kills the higher frequencies

I have used these Inkax models for more than 1 year and i am very impressed with is operation and the audio quality . The only problem us that the twin line divider can shorten the cable

As in the photo above there is also a pause button . The joints on the twin cable part can be easily broken if there is some higher stress 

The cable can also be shorted on the earbud . Mean time of shortening is around 8-10 months with more than 5 hour per day Sometimes its use with the Degen radio during nights can shift me to sleep! 

Rate 4/5 

 

Addition : after finding the bug with the BLON 3 that was simply the mistaken use of the mid- bud and changed into the widest tips, the sound  was clearly much better and didn't fell from the ear. The buds with the wide 'sponges' offered even bassier sound with near to AKJ  headphones audio quality Checking them with the Inkax model i found them to be quite treblier with both buds: their standard  silicone tips and also with the large 4.5mm tips !

Supereye aka Benjie M6: short technical review

An old player used only as auxiliary and by my daughter for a short time till she  skipped to her first smartphone two years ago  . I also replaced over the Ruizu which finally didn't fit to me  with its trebly sound and poor radio quality.  

Notice : I always use  my AKG81 DJ or the JBL T500  headphones while testing any model.

Notice that the Benjie is the same model with Supereye with the top control buttons operating the typical English way : left operations in the right panel and vice versa See the photo above!

Relatively heavy for its size, it  can mean that it uses a aluminum case with around 120 gr of weight 

In short i can assure that it can use that it fully supports 32 GB of RAM  and as advertised it can support up to to 128 GB. The new ram i use is 32GB  that covers all the previous RAM with more material . 

Most directories include between 800-1100 files . Changing folders and  scrolling into files in such giga folders while playing music, can temporarily freeze playback. With around 70  files on screen scrolling in 10 seconds it is the fastest scrolling i can think so far.Chinese Greek and Thai file names are supported. Also the ID3 info.

various applications : folder view ,pic view , ebook , mic recording, radio and settings 

Among the supported file are MP3, WMA 9.x , OGG,APE, FLAC  and MP4. WMA 10 is NOT supported  DSD are NOT recognized. Hi-res FLAC neither

Bluetooth  is selectable from the menu. I only once used this operation but i m not interested to use it . The playing time drops to around 8 hours (non-confirmed but referred in the op manual )

Stereo FM radio with good audio quality and ability to record in WAV mode only .  Listen to a  recording: https://app.box.com/s/dp6mq4k3fi5qtl6f24yo593z04pagb16

Mine Supereye version scans in reverse with up button scanning downwards the band ie from 108 to 88 MHz!  it stops once a strong station is found. 

Some nice operations with possible differences from the original Benjie (unless its is on M8 )

• vol up and down : increases /decreases volume , 
• vol up or down longer time : next/ previous song 

Volume is shown in a circle levels up to 9 are OK for normalized songs.

Audio quality is very close to the Nintaus with the only difference in the bass (<2 db)

Max time used : near to 27 hours : Tested with 70 files of 1 hr long , in 3 formats  MP3 WMA  at vol 9 level played continuously till battery drain.  

Rate: 4.5/5

Addition: 

A few vlogs in youtube that show its operation

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2-kwCquZiQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQRMgurnm8A

 

V-monks !

 Finally the cheapest of all earphones tested! 

After receiving a very impressive review with price below the 10 USD i was very such impressed with this article.A few more articles also shown good reviews and finally i decided to buy for a test

The parcel received in less than one moth via ebay and received in around 20 days from the in laws home. I had together with  me the ALG81 DJ and after opening the parcel i immediately tested i with a Shortwave radio of good audio quality and later with mine auxiliary HiFI player . the Amoi.

On the PL330 radio the sound was a bit more bassy with a bit lower treble  but it is  somehow annoying

On the Amoi and a Q3 recorder and MP3 player the sound is a bit better.

From what I understood the problem lies in the audio curve. Comparing to the 81DJs curve , the Monks has some better tuning to the higher parts of bassy range and lower gain on  the higher highs. Comparing with  other earphones as my  favorite Inkax HiFi or Music , well usable for smartphones  there is a huge difference on the trebles side

Spatiality : the earphones have excellent spatiality as with the DJ81 

Second minimal problem: after long time of using them my right ear was annoyed . I also tried to use the sponges but I didn’t manage to put them over their housing The hole is too small …. After 5 tries I desisted continuing…

IN the other side I liked very much that this is the fist time there is an earphone that reaches the spatiality  the volume and the near linearity of the sound that goes a little under a semipro model as DJ81 ! 4.5/5

 

my typical way to test head- and earphones 

update : testing monks with AKG77 

Being once in the main home i cross tested monks with AKG77. The sound of AKG77 was quite better with sharper audio .listening was in sequence than parallel

To get in more detail: 

1.monks are a bit bassier  as compared with DJ81 , on the 'higher' bass band 

2.The highest highs are a bit reduced  comparing to the 77

 

XDuoo X2 mini - review

 

Its a long time forgotten blog to make 

As you can see all my posts are referring to low and middle class mp3 models. keeping some money for reserve i was for very long time into looking for a  good model of higher class ie audiophile model; I finally rested into the XDuoo X2S an entry level audiophile model Aas far as i know this brand is well reputable in the audiophile market for their valve  amplifiers and other related HIfi equipment

The 2S is around 55 -65 Eu in ebay from China and found via France at 60 plus courier shipping at 12 EU Quite good price and quite  fast delivery service in just 7 days to Middle Greece. 

 

I  shot it a few days after receiving it but lost the opportunity to blog it due to other reasons. This is  the top view of the player. Unfortunately it is very small . much smaller from what i could expect 

Very simplistic design and controls comparing to my Amoi or even to the more complex Nintaus/SHMCI .  

and  VERY small !

And  the volume control!

For its size it is quite bulky . 3 times thicker than expected. 

 

Three  interesting  photos: There is support of Greek Chinese and Thai scripts ! 

TRN ZS1 IEM earbuds

This is the last IEM model i received bu this time from the ebay in around 25 days via speed pack the newse4rice between eBay and China for a bit 'faster reception'. There is a problem with this service that the packs ater being delivered in Greece are then left in the carrier service for unknown time and finally delivered in more than 20 days after. This happened with some midMay orders As for example a ties mini pack has been sent form the seller on 10May , arrived on my country on May 26th and still on 14-6 the parcel has not been received . This is the biggest problem of someone who monitors the orders via various tracking services

Now back to the subject . TRN is a company as the KZ in the same city Shenzhen making IEM earphones with good specifications . But just look at the box design Its very similar to the KZ models The only difference are the size by only 1-2 mm wider . Buds are put in exactly the same way as the KZ The only materiel that separates from th KZ crowd are the mini information , in different folded document and of course the angry Chinglish but using good and easy to read fonts The wording seems as like it was translated by Google !

The cable is quite thin and sodt and can be  tangled very easy 'As sluts' as ew call this phenomenon in Greek Many times i spent too much time to untangle it in order to use it in my ears . I kept the, plugged into the earbuds and i do the same in all other models

The buds are very close to the ZSN in size and appearance but the design is quite different 

Performance

The audio level is not so strong as with the KZ models and is much closer to the Sound magic model And very different to the KZ models and is heard as generally poor  INoder to get the best audio i had to add the wide eartips that add a huge bass in the sound

This is a comparative comparative audio response as based in aural listening There are a little bassy adds but the trebles are qiute higher which remind the standard audio quality of BLON03 as noticed by others IN a way this can be called as subtle trebles especially in the higher part of the band 

Comparing to the ZSN its sounds with deep bass missing and treblier in the higher part 

in this article i have listened to these very beautiful story songs from MSia and Insia

1. Segalania pasti by Aida Agil a rock song 
2. Euphoria by Rere Reina a disco song in English
   
3. Semaking Sayang by Wulan Alora a dangdut pop song
   

They were also tested and compared with the tones test  audio yelding the following curves

The part on the left is from KZSN the other is the TRN with just 3 db of difference in amplitude 

And  this is the difference between the two earbuds in terms of frequency response

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A nice notice

Just looking at the plugs the have nearly the same length and distance between the poles 

As for example  the plug of the EDX can fit perfectly into the socket of the BLON03 but the cable plug of the BLON 03 cannot be plugged into the EDX as tits cable is protected by a cover 

this is the proof of the above 

I have also tested the plug of the TRN to perfectly suit into the socket  of the KZ ZSN . in this way i have tested  he sound of both and well he