Thursday, January 30, 2014

Etymotic ER4S Earphones sound so great, and here's my story!

I just wanted to make a post on the earphones I've come to love and use as my main "phones" (Etymotic ER4S).  Below you'll find my story of how and why I love the ER4S.  I'll post my eq settings shortly and more info as well.  You can also check out some info on these on my youtube review channel dentReviews  Without further ado...

The ER4S with added cord lock and right identifier.

I truly believe the er4s is the best earphone in the world so far that I've heard, and I've heard a lot from $10 to $1000 and none of them sound as good overall.  Some have certain aspects that are nice.  The Audeo Phonak PFE 112 is by far the most comfortable i've ever worn (and still pretty flat).  The Shure 535 is almost a backwards ER4S.  Great flat bass up to the mids, but rolled of treble.  Although the treble roll off of the 535 is much worse than the sub bass roll off of the er4s.  But still, decent bass overall for the 535.  I could go on, but when I put the er4s in, eq or not, the overall sound is what I expect from overall flatness.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

New fidelityforum.org audio forum coming soon!

I've joined up with a friend to start an audio forum.  Keep an eye on my blog and I'll give an update when it goes live.  The forum will have audio topics such and earphone and headphone discussions as well as topics related to audio fidelity, etc.

http://fidelityforum.org

New custom cable finished.

I just completed a custom y-adapter cable for a friend.  I used some neutrik connectors; a 3.5 TRS to two 1/4" TS.  I used some paracord for the sleeve and a bit of heatshrink for the y-split.  It came out very good and feels pretty solid.

The connections were soldered and wrapped electrical tape around the paracord in the center beneath the heatshrink to add a bit of stability to the y-split paracord junction and also some electrical tape around the paracord where the connectors crimp the wires.  This gave it a nice snug crimp without being too forceful on the wires and allows some strain relief from the paracord being crimped and not just the cable.

Have a look.  If you have any questions or comments please let me know below. :)


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

New video review posted: JDS Labs C5 Headphone Amplifier - In depth, 2 part review

I've completed my in-depth review of the JDS Labs C5 headphone amplifier.  Here is part one and now part two as well.  This is a great `headphone amplifier, and you get to listen to me blab about it for 30 minutes! hehe ;)


Video Review Part 1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdnkYUf8hrQ&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Video Review Part 2


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDpX2d5s274

Sunday, January 12, 2014

New video review - JDS Labs C5 Headphone Amplifier!

I've just posted a new review of a great portable headphone amplifier, the C5 amp from JDS Labs.  Part 2 coming soon.  Check it out!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdnkYUf8hrQ&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Friday, January 10, 2014

I've started making custom cables!

I'm happy to have recently started making my own custom interconnect cables!  Check it out. :)

Here is an earphone that I re-cabled.  I replaced everything from the earphone housing and down:


This is the extension cable I made for the earphones (or anything I want extended):



And some short interconnect cables for my JDS Labs C5 amplifier as well as my custom AB switch I built using a C5 case.  (connected to both inputs just for visual example):




I hope to make a tutorial on the earphone re-cable shortly.  So keep an eye out.  I also have a review of the C5 amplifier on my youtube review channel, and I'll be adding a more in depth review as well as a review of the new JDS Labs C5D soon.  Stay posted.  :)  And thanks to John at JDS Labs for helping me find an awesome soldering iron!