The All Purpose Advice Thread

I would recommend the surf audio balanced cable, great sounding affordable option. If you can afford it, their occ cable is worth it.

https://www.surfcables.com/products/sennheiser-headphone-cables

 

So, I'm looking at picking up a pair of Mad Dog Pro. I have a certain fondness for the now departed Mad Dog but have never heard the Pro. It's been a long time since they came out. I can't really think of any closed back I'd rather have, though they are uncomfortable ultimately. (Alpha pads are great though.) Has anything arrived on the closed-back market that has superseded the Mad Dog Pro, for under $300 or so?

 

Looking for dirt cheap active preamp ($40 or less) to use with my TV. Dac will feed it and then out to the power amp. Strictly for use in a stereo 2.0 setup. Needs to be relatively noise free and only needs to have one input. Dac and amp are mid-fi quality. Sys is the likely suspect, any active challengers for less? Can be used.

Any cheap ones on ebay that someone has experience with for my low end use case?

 

Im looking to understand the theoretical issues behind USB interfaces sucking. Are there any in-depth threads on SBAF that discuss this or focus on USB nervosa in general?

 

I'm thinking about getting one of the Retuned Aeons from Dan Clark Audio.

I have had the audioquest nighthawk for 5 years now and I like it quite a bit. Comfort is a big deal for me and nighthawk is the most comfortable headphone I've ever owned. I've heard that Aeon comes close in comfort.

The nighthawk is overall a bit darker than what I might ideally prefer but I still like the tonality overall. I listen to a lot of electronic music so having extended and high quality bass is another priority for me.

It sounds like the Open RT would be close to the tuning of the nighthawk but with a bit more treble energy. This is appealing but part of me thinks I should go with the closed RT so that I can have both a warmer and cooler sound signature represented in my headphone repertoire instead of two headphones that sound almost the same. I tend not to mind more the "neutral" signature of my iems (EDC3 and Noble 4C) especially because the retuned Aeon closed has a flat subbass bump. This might also make it a bit better for mixing music because I do a little bit of amateur producing on the side. The sound isolation is not necessary but it's a nice benefit.

So at the moment I am leaning to the closed version but I wanted to see what people's opinions of the two are, especially because most reviews I could find focused on the old, original tuning of the headphones

 

I owned the original closed and the original open, and currently have the RT open. I've listened to but not owned the Nighthawk. So I don't have direct experience between the two RTs but can make some guesses FWIW.

I think either of the RTs will have a bit more treble than your nighthawk. The RT is an effort to go after the Harman curve and it's reasonably successful without sacrificing too much what makes the Aeons so appealing -- that smoothness and overall tonality.

I think considering your interest in electronic music, I'd lean toward the closed. The Aeons have extended smooth planar bass but where they fall a little short for me is in impact and slam. That said, the closed backs had a bit more of that than the open.

 

Awesome thanks! I was already leaning towards the closed, I just wanted to get some other opinions before I pull the trigger. The closed RT seems more or less identical to original closed except it has 4-5db bass and subbass boost. Seems like the perfect way to make sure it has enough bass impact

 

Would this work as a headphone extension cable?

 

Well, there's this one. But it'll be a pretty long slog to go through.
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...crapifiers-pro-interfaces-and-bears-oh-my.62/

 

Not really. I have read about 20 or so articles on USB including the 130 page USB 2.0 spec paper, where at least they do go over how the audio stream is different than a regular data stream. The most enlightening thing I have come across has to do with rfi, emi, board layout, impedance, design flaws resulting in failure to have clean eye patterns, jitter and finally poor construction of many USB cables.

The thing I don't quite understand is while a packet may have some data values changed from a one to a zero because of a noisy data line, how would we ever know? At 44k samples per second who would notice a micro sliver that had the wrong number. I get how an interruption in the delivery of a usb packet may cause a tick, but does wrong data even have a sound?

And then we have timing. Can these packets of data sound different because of timing issues (eg.rise time, etc). I say, yes, but am not knowledgeable enough to understand it. A simple experiment can let your ears hear what I mean, though. Take a ferrite with a decent sized interior diameter split open design and place your usb cable in it, wrap the wire about 4-5 turns through the ferrite before clamping it shut. Tell me what you hear, compared to no ferrite.

I have a ton of links on USB and potential problems from folks like TDK (ferrrite bead on boards), TI (board layout gotchas) and others. Let me know if you want a bit of downtime reading. None eloquently or completely layout the problems we encounter in audio though or explain how and why.

 

The USB receiver should know. Isochronous USB audio doesn't have error correction or retry, but the receiver should detect an error through CRC in the packet. The receiver can handle errors by replacing the packet with silence, or with interpolated values based on adjacent packets.

However, the error rate should be very low. At the hardware level, the maximum bit error rate allowed by the USB 2.0 standard is 1 bit in 10¹² bits. For CD quality audio that works out to a maximum of 1 bit of error once every 197 hours on average. For all practical purposes, you can assume that audio data transfer will be perfect. Look elsewhere for effects on audio quality.

 

Would indeed be interested in reading material.

My current interest was prompted by a recent DAC switch out. I pretty much only use I2S into DACs at the moment, coming from a Singxer SU-6 (d2d box), in turn fed via USB. Some comment stated this wasn't 'true' I2S, which is nonsensical but which I took to mean the poster either objected to the USB in chain or to the d2d device. And, the salesguy wants to sell me the DAC's matching music server which would be I2S directly into the DAC.

So, trying to determine where the USB problems exist, if they can be overcome with the SU-6, or if I should move to streamer or server with I2S output.

 

A number of my bookmarks are so old the links are dead. I found some but not all. Here is a start.

USB Org


TI engineering article

Signal Integrity

Intel Engineering

TI Design TI EMI

Rise Time

TDK

Capacitance Effects

you wont hear the errors

One that mentions i2s



Charles Hanson of Ayre

 

I agree with @Metro that any errors are spread so far apart that you'll be unable to recognize them, unless there is a gross problem that gives you errors only seconds apart. That's like 1 error in a million bits, which is really bad.

Rise time is just a part of what creates the data eye, the window in which the receiver has to make the call if it's a 1 or a 0. USB is so slow compared to, say, Gigabit Ethernet, that rise time alone should be inconsequential. Modern transmitters are gonna have a rise time much faster than what is required. More relevant is crosstalk or attenuation/insertion loss, which a really poorly-built cable or connector might exhibit

 

Question regarding i2s over HDMI:

When using i2s over HDMI (i.e. connecting PI2AES to Denafrips/Holo/Rockna DACs), does the HDMI version of the cable matter?

The latest version of HDMI is 2.1, but some "audiophile HDMI cables" are older versions. I even have an audiophile HDMI 1.3 cable lying around, left unused for years.

Although I don't think using there is night-and-day difference between using HDMI cables of the same version, I was wondering whether using an older version HDMI cable that cost over $100 may sound worse than a generic but latest version HDMI cable that cost $10. Or worse, if some older versions of HDMI cable are not compatible with i2s at all.

 

Definitely shouldn't matter except in HDMI video context.

 

Does anyone else have problems with the sliders cracking on Beyerdynamics? I've gone through so many in over a decade. A few years ago I opted for four 3D printed sliders thinking they'd hold up but both sets have cracked since then as well. I just duct taped the last bits of them together and it's working well enough but, goddamn, is my head really that monstrous.

Anyone else ever meet this challenge and overcome?

 

This is a tangled mess in my head so I'll try chunking the information as best I can.

I bought a first-run Liquid Carbon at a ludicrous price off a cool dude here and, because SE outs on that are reputedly gimped compared to balanced, decided that I would do well to be even more irresponsible with my money and get a balanced cable to make the most of it. I was gonna go cheap but someone else chimed in with an offer of a beautiful cable for not a lot (considering the parts and work), so I bite. The fact that he offered to ship it ASAP and said I could pay whenever I was able sweetened the deal. I loathe owing people so hurried to settle that debt either way.

The cable arrived eventually, but not before I resorted to (figuratively) banging my head against a DHL truck. Since the arrival of the Carbon to my place is a while off (lent it to a friend before taking it in) I used it with the HP-3 straight out of a Schiit Fulla 2 and noticed there was some weird fwip-ing noise in the right channel. When I swapped L/R connectors the sound migrated to left channel, so it seemed that the right/RED connector-ed end was the one specifically at fault. Swapping the stock cable back in, weird staticky/fwippy/buzzy/crackly noise vanishes.

With the XLR>6.35mm adapter on the cable is easily double the length of my old cable and so I eventually wondered if the noise was due to the mess of cables I have at my listening desk, but even unplugging my laptop and mouse, turning off everything non-essential and keeping components as far away as cables allow, I still hear the same. I tried daisy-chaining another adapter in (6.35mm>3.5mm) so I could run the new cable out of my phone and the behaviour doesn't always manifest itself even when listening to the same streams/audio files.

The above makes me think it could be the cable somehow being more sensitive to fuckery from the sub-optimal LAPTOP>FULLA 2 pairing. I tried recording snippets of songs demonstrating what I was hearing but neither the MiniDSP nor my phone were able to pick it up.

Some time ago I got a cheap digital multimeter for when I was considering repairing the ZDT Jr. myself, and with the help of the guy that sold me the cable over Whatsapp we confirmed that everything measured as expected, with ring and sleeve on the connectors shorted together so the 3.5mm TRS behaved like the 3.5mm TS on the stock cables.

The guy who sold me the cable remembered that he (slightly) overheated the insulator when soldering the 3.5mm Rch connector (the one that's been giving me grief). Doubt that could have much to do with this but I can't say for certain given my lack of knowledge.

Just noticed that at higher SPLs there's this weird polyphonic sound when running sine sweeps instead of a single pure tone (recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15QhXX-rjQXPQgQhLV9AY5fAgNeJ_1_kH/view?usp=sharing).

Measurements taken with MiniDSP EARS, mic flush against canal opening, when things are as quiet as they're ever likely going to be. Laptop running off battery, all unnecessary cables unplugged. Fulla, laptop, and EARS/headphones spaced far apart as possible. Level set by running full-range pink noise and hitting100dBA. full album including a previous attempt showing same differences here: https://imgur.com/a/48V2c0U. I'm told that the EARS sucks for distortion, which is what led to me wanting to look into cheap alternatives for when I'd have the cash to spare. it's what I have to work with for now though.

STOCK CABLE


NEW CABLE (L ch/BLACK):


NEW CABLE (R ch/RED):


THD of the three above compared. RED = stock Lch; GREEN = sil Lch, BLUE = sil Rch


And for reference here's an .mdat containing two of IDK how many measurements showing more or less the same: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1etNZhG5LZC00Q3Jnpffd4Gf_Bn8sPvmz/view?usp=sharing. There are minor differences in FR and impulse response but it's expected when I'm jostling the cups around connecting and disconnecting things.

It's interesting that, besides D2 skyrocketing, D4 overtakes D3 on Rch/RED while they're all just kinda jumbled together on Lch/BLACK. Stock cable distortion looks about as good as I can probably expect from the MiniDSP rig, and apart from D2 above 3kHz looking much too high don't seem completely estranged from @purr1n's FPC results: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...-3-headphones-preview.5072/page-3#post-162102

I readily admit that I'm among the less-knowledgeable people here so this all has been more than slightly frustrating to try and get sorted. Will be following up when I finally get the Liquid Carbon so i can go straight out of XLR without the adapter, but for now I think I'm done losing sleep and hair over this. Keeping the thing in storage.

 

Spoiler: Warning, long winded response

It's probably a bad cable for the reasons specified; possible overheating of the connector insulation.

 

ROFL. I should bring back my old signature about not knowing how to be concise. Wanted to cover all possibilities is all!

The cable was tested by the guy who sold it to me and he's a stand up dude, I trust that it sounded grand while with him. If it wasn't used in a hazing while stuck with DHL for a month then is it possible that the HP-3 (25 ohm nominal and 112dB at 1Vrms @1kHz) is just extremely sensitive and picks stuff like this up more easily?