Cuppa
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Sent me a GRADO got me banned
Boner fide member of the Canadian Goat deprecation society
Posts: 33
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Post by Cuppa on Jan 2, 2007 12:31:46 GMT
Happy New Year to all - just got back - hope you had a good one.
So, my Xin finally arrived over Xmas after 3.5 months wait - but boy was it worth it.
Been listening to it this morning and it sounds heavenly. I immediately thought of a CanAmp comparison listen and when I did I thought - this sounds better out of the box - can it be?
Did some more extensive comparisons. I think I can safely say that unless Mike's Canamp upgrades do the trick, then I may have a CanAmp for sale soon.
The Xin is just breathtaking. There is a particular track on the remastered Star Wars Soundtrack (Episode IV) which gives me goosebumps and shivers up my spine when I listen to it on my Musical Fidelity F22/FX amps with speakers.
I didn't get the goosebumps and shiver up my spine with the Canamp, but I did again this morning with the Xin. Black background, beautiful attack and decay, real air around instruments, just breathtaking - and it hasn't even burned in yet. It makes the Canamp sound a little sluggish and a little warm for me, the Xin doesn't make it sound more cold or analytical/compressed - just more to listen to.
All this for less than the Canamp and it is portable and has crossfeed to boot. And this through IEMs. I'm looking to forward to trying it with bigger phones soon.
More to follow.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Jan 2, 2007 13:04:28 GMT
Happy New Year to all - just got back - hope you had a good one. So, my Xin finally arrived over Xmas after 3.5 months wait - but boy was it worth it. Been listening to it this morning and it sounds heavenly. I immediately thought of a CanAmp comparison listen and when I did I thought - this sounds better out of the box - can it be? Did some more extensive comparisons. I think I can safely say that unless Mike's Canamp upgrades do the trick, then I may have a CanAmp for sale soon. The Xin is just breathtaking. There is a particular track on the remastered Star Wars Soundtrack (Episode IV) which gives me goosebumps and shivers up my spine when I listen to it on my Musical Fidelity F22/FX amps with speakers. I didn't get the goosebumps and shiver up my spine with the Canamp, but I did again this morning with the Xin. Black background, beautiful attack and decay, real air around instruments, just breathtaking - and it hasn't even burned in yet. It makes the Canamp sound a little sluggish and a little warm for me, the Xin doesn't make it sound more cold or analytical/compressed - just more to listen to. All this for less than the Canamp and it is portable and has crossfeed to boot. And this through IEMs. I'm looking to forward to trying it with bigger phones soon. More to follow. Nice one Cuppa! The little Xin amps get a good rep and you can mess about with different opamps too, glad you like it. I really don't think the Heed with be too hot with low Z 'phones, your xin is a lot better to drive them. I think the Heed only really comes into its own when you pair it with some medium to high Z 'phones. I notice that Heed have all of a sudden changed the bit on their website that used to say "designed for high impedance headphone like Sennheiser HD-600" (or something along those lines and they're now claiming 8ohm - 600ohm. Anyways, whatever.......... Don't write the Heed off Cuppa just cause it doesn't sound as good as the Xin with IEM's.... of course, if the IEM's are all you're ever going to listen to then it'd be a good idea to sell the Heed. If, however, you're planning to get a more conventional pair of headphones (ie: along the lines of HD-650) then you may well regret having sold it. You'll easily get back what you paid for it anyway cuppa...... these amps seem to be in great demand at the moment thanks to some idiot starting a feeding frenzy over at Head-Fi
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Cuppa
<100
Sent me a GRADO got me banned
Boner fide member of the Canadian Goat deprecation society
Posts: 33
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Post by Cuppa on Jan 2, 2007 13:08:18 GMT
I will reserve judgement until I have at least tried it with K701 and HD650. I will have some Grados here next week to try, but I know your thoughts on those...
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rickcr42
Fully Modded
Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Jan 2, 2007 16:29:30 GMT
A breath of fresh air there Mike.I have been on a personal mission/rant for quite some time as you know for just such "full disclosure" ad copy that to me would not chase away customers using other cans but draw more in that are looking for synergy.Would even be possible to make two versions of the same amp depending on end use of which while being very uneconomical for the larger manufacturers is PERFECT for the smaller operations who better serve the individual wanting something different anyway.. I beleive the first somewhat high profile/one man operation manufacturer to have two versions of a single amp aimed squarely at the end user was Ray Samuels with the SR-71 with his "high gain version" and "low gain version" and have also noticed since there is usually a gain switch added to most all headphone amps that followed but I would even go a step further than that and "voice" the amp to a class of headphones. This is exactly the opposite of what many claim to aspire to,the "dead nuetral" amp,but if you look at all the op-amp rolling and passive parts rolling that goes on this is EXACTLY what folks want and in a sneaky way "get" when that dead nuetral is only that with a particular set of headphones that the amp was designed with in mind and in fact tested with on the bench during the parts identification stage. Why else you think two persons can give to TOTALLY different opinions on the same amp ? I'm thinking it is more than taste going on here but more amp/headphones synergy and it is time we all (including amp manufacturers) begin to admit it just my opinion as usual,don't mean squat
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Cuppa
<100
Sent me a GRADO got me banned
Boner fide member of the Canadian Goat deprecation society
Posts: 33
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Post by Cuppa on Jan 2, 2007 17:10:16 GMT
Cuppa if you decide to sell the Heed please give me a chance to buy it from you. If I do so I would hope you could ship it to PinkFloyd so he modifies it and sends it to me. By the way I am also waiting for my Supermacro LE which I ordered on 10/10/6 Miguel, when the SMIVLE arrives I guarantee you will not be disappointed. I copied your order (opamps) so it has shipped with AD8616 and AD8656 + extras. I also ordered an additional one of each so I can try the opamps in both L/R and 3/4. The pictures on the website gave me the impression it was bigger than it really is. My iRiver iHP140 dwarfs it, it is so small. Re the Heed, if Mike will be so kind as to squeeze every last ounce of sound out of it for me and I try it with the HD650/K701 and still prefer the SMIVLE then you have first nibs on it. I have to say that my iRiver iHP140 into a HR Microdac into the SMIVLE into Shure e4c is all that I hoped for in a portable rig. My only next steps would be something like the Westone ES2.
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Post by merton on Jan 5, 2007 8:24:09 GMT
Happy New Year to all - just got back - hope you had a good one. So, my Xin finally arrived over Xmas after 3.5 months wait - but boy was it worth it. Been listening to it this morning and it sounds heavenly. I immediately thought of a CanAmp comparison listen and when I did I thought - this sounds better out of the box - can it be? Did some more extensive comparisons. I think I can safely say that unless Mike's Canamp upgrades do the trick, then I may have a CanAmp for sale soon. The Xin is just breathtaking. There is a particular track on the remastered Star Wars Soundtrack (Episode IV) which gives me goosebumps and shivers up my spine when I listen to it on my Musical Fidelity F22/FX amps with speakers. I didn't get the goosebumps and shiver up my spine with the Canamp, but I did again this morning with the Xin. Black background, beautiful attack and decay, real air around instruments, just breathtaking - and it hasn't even burned in yet. It makes the Canamp sound a little sluggish and a little warm for me, the Xin doesn't make it sound more cold or analytical/compressed - just more to listen to. All this for less than the Canamp and it is portable and has crossfeed to boot. And this through IEMs. I'm looking to forward to trying it with bigger phones soon. More to follow. what IEMs are you using?
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Cuppa
<100
Sent me a GRADO got me banned
Boner fide member of the Canadian Goat deprecation society
Posts: 33
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Post by Cuppa on Jan 5, 2007 16:25:59 GMT
Shure e4c
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Post by MaN227 on Jan 28, 2007 15:09:49 GMT
this is most interesting mrarroyo,
I think this is the first I have ever read of a less expensive (180$) product from the same maker being better than the more expensive (350$) product. this is very nearly 1/2 the cost.
you mention much of opamp rolling for the macro, so I wonder is this micro that you feel is much the better of the two a , shall I say STOCK version? or does it as well have opamp changes, or some other bits and bobs?
This is most interesting indeed, and that micro is Soooooo tiny as well.
I guess the thing that I've read several times that has sorta crossed the XIN amps from my list of amps to try is the super long waits.
those names drive me nuts mini, micro, macro. I can never keep them straight (hard to do with only 2 brain cells left, that only pass by one another every now and then lol )
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