AYchan.com

DAC: Benchmark DAC1 USB
Head/earphones: Livewires(incoming) | K701 | ER4P/S | MX500 | E888 | MX51
Portables: iPhone 3G | Oppo V9 | Samsung T9 | iAudio5

Owned head/earphones: Shure SE530, Shure E4C, Audio Technica ATH-CK7, Etymotic ER6, Sennheiser HD280 Pro
Owned amps: Corda Arietta, Original Master, Porta Corda MkIII, Little Dot Micro+, Go-Vibe V5, PA2V2
Owned dacs/soundcards: MicroDAC 2007, Beresford TC-7510 Mk6, M-Audio Firewire Audiophile, Revolution 5.1
Owned portables: Cowon iAudio D2, Meizu M6

Come to think about it, this is a bit too crazy… When will this crave stop?  when I start to have hearing loss and can’t distinguish good from bad anymore, I guess….

This is a suprisingly good mp3 player from China.  The Oppo V9 plays FLAC, APE, and of course mp3 and wma.  The output hisses less than the iAudio Cowon D2, Samsung T9, and the Meizu M6, with a sound signature that is close to iAudio – bright.  It even comes with the Sennheiser MX400, like some iAudio players do.  Its FM reception is as good as it gets in a mp3 player.  My only gripe is about the laggy interface, especially when browsing through the files….

**Update**
Just an update about the laggy interface:  The newest official firmware fixes this problem.

It’s everything I wanted: little hiss, flat but clear sound, great FM reception.  Just a bit too bulky though.

It must have been years since I bought any blank CD-Rs (yeah you heard me, CD-Rs), but thanks to a friend of mine, I just realized that we ran out of them. Since I just bought a home CD player setup and I download Audio CD images, I figure I should buy a pack (and not worry about it for the next 10 years or something).

So I went to a local BestBuy and saw the Fujifilm 30-pack was on sale, but there were two different kinds of packaging for the same item (with the same barcode). One of them is yellow in color and it’s made in Taiwan. Fair enough, I thought. Then I took a look at the blue pack and it’s MADE IN JAPAN! Needless to say I happily bought the blue pack.

So, any physical difference between these and cheaper ones?

This is a no-name brand.

This is the one I just bought.

They are shot within a 5-minute span: same light conditions and same phone camera. Forgive my phone camera for failing to focus on the light rays, but clearly there are a lot less irregular reflections on the Fujifilm ones.

Does it matter for computer use? I wouldn’t care much, since computer can attempt to read trouble spots over and over again until it gets the bits right (though while in the process it would hang up your computer).

I think where it matters is when used with CD players, since CD players usually make a lot less attempts at reading the disc (maybe even just one).

Bottom line:
While I don’t feel like paying $10 for a mastering-quality CDR, I would definitely avoid no-name ones for audio use.

(Yeah, I know, I guess no one burns Audio CDs anymore.)

My dream headphone – AKG K701！

舊年其實都試過用full size headphone，不過果對太大，總係跌，放棄，以為呢世人都唔會再試… 結果今次又忍唔住手… 今次呢對竟然唔覺得大到跌… 音質嘛… 呢對 headphone 特質係音場闊、人聲突出，加上有現場感… 而 sound signature 同 Etymotic 差唔多，都係著重高、中音，低音唔係冇，不過唔好旨意佢播 rock music… 。