Recommend Must-Have Accesories

But note that the product is just a DAC, it doesnt have an amp (unlike say the Fiio E07k)
They do have seperate amps (but not USB powered): MAGNI - $99.00 : Schiit Audio, Headphone amps and DACs made in USA.
So a combined DAC+Amp is gonna cost more than 2x the Fiio E07k.

 

Yes I know. I did put there that a Fiio is a cheaper, but still a good solution. But if going to spend about $100, I personally would rather get something that can be more versatile. Can be used with your home audio system. For something portable, I'd still prefer to use the Asus Xonar U3, which you can find on sale for a cheap price.

 

Thanks, now I know what you mean about playing low frequency and thanks for those songs.
1. Well I like listening to a variety electronic music such as house a style of that, 2. $90-ish, 3. is there a difference between quality?, 4. no
I'll check head-fi soon.

Thanks for the link! but its a long post so read when I have time. So the problem is availability and price.
About wired mouse what is acceleration and weights? Thanks for the pointer I will try to find one that for matches my grip type.

I will keep in mind that mech keyboard is for if I dont move often or could be for my desktop pc.
May I see that that type of dock and how does it connect to the pc?

Yes I know that but thanks for the reminder as etismyname said its for convenience.

Okay so the issue with mech keyboards are noise and price while normal laptop keyboard can last quite a long but in the end I guess it depends on the usage and comfortably about the keyboard.
So the bottom line is NuForce is just terribly made and everyone should consider getting something else, good thing i never consider a dac yet.

 

Mech keyboard longevity = kind of false, especially if you stack'em up against your pack-ins. It takes a long time for the rubber to degrade on a dome keyboard and contact sheet failure is pretty darned rare. Sure, there's wear and tear on the key plunger but unless it's one of the crappy Logitechs / Saiteks which bind if you even look at them, domes can go for a long time. Here's a hint: Go to a keyboard enthusiast site and search "Switch failure" and "dome failure"

You can replace switches, but will *you* bother? What is that time worth? And yes, you can replace keycaps... but you know how much they cost, right?

Just one other reason why I generally stick to Topres (though Topre keys wear at an alarming rate, again making kind of bunk the 'you can replace keycaps' argument for these chi-chi keyboards) and the better domes / scissors...

 

Most keyboards take a lot of space, but some with scissor type switches are smaller if you want to pack a keyboard for lans, my comment was meant for keyboards in general rather than mechs, it's just that mechanical keyboards were mentioned. The mech though are expensive and keyboards are like mice: get what feels good for you, some prefer mechanical switches, some don't. I'm quite happy with either although I do like the stiffness of the mech I have on my desktop, but they are far from the be all and end all of keyboards.

A dock is something like this: Amazon.com: Genuine Dell Laptop Notebook E/Port Replicator Docking Station PR03X with Power Adapter PA-4E For Dell E Series Laptop/Notebooks: Computers & Accessories, the connectors are proprietary, the one I just linked will only work with Dell Latitude and Dell Precision laptops, most laptop don't have a dock connector on the bottom of the notebook anyways. You didn't mention which laptop you had though so I thought I'd mention it in the event that you had a Latitude, Elitebook, Precision or Thinkpad.

 

Take my mech with me, its part of my essentials and I use it every day

 

NuForce is actually one of the better companies for audio gear.

Check out the owner comments/reviews on Amazon of the NuForce uDAC-2 at: Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: NuForce Icon uDAC-2 Black Digital Audio Converter

 

Agree to disagree. I'd say it's one of the worst out there.

 

Odd that you have this outlook of NuForce. A few thoughts in support of NuForce:

1. You're in a very small minority; check Amazon owner comments/reviews of any of the NuForce gear that Amazon lists.

2. One key proviso to using the NuForce Icon uDAC-2 unit properly is to be sure it has power from a robust USB connector. Even better is to use a cable that permits a 2nd USB connection for additional power (also help avoid voltage sag); see: Amazon.com: StarTech.com USB2HABMY3 3 Feet USB Y Cable for External Hard Drive - USB A to mini B: Electronics

3. Setting up sound playback properly on a Windows laptop (with either Win7 or WinXP) is tricky stuff, with plenty of opportunity to not get it right.

 

Multi monitors set up to defeat the purpose of buying a laptop

 

You sound like a Nuforce employee. Or Vicious

 

It'd be more helpful if you actually said something more on topic and gave links.

The anti-NuForce posting by hulawafu77 was way over the top in this thread, and he offered no broadstrokes to back it up. Meaning that you can always find individual negative comments/reviews on Amazon.

Anyhow just so we're all clear about me:
I have no connection of any kind with either NuForce or the audio biz in general.

 

All right. People get way too defensive about the brands they picked especially at the 'discretionary purchase for everyone' level*. You can do better than the Nuforce from a quality perspective in the shape of the Fiio. Pretty much any Fiio.


*Though when I bought several ultra high end DACs to shoot off for my system and said on an audio forum that most of them were for people who listened with their eyes, far fewer people got their noses waaaaaay more out of joint.

 

AFAIK there is no such thing as a truly portable DAC/amp, for use with my laptop, that'd qualify as a true high end audio product. So why on earth are you now talking about "$10K DACs"???

Out of honest curiosity, do you actually own a small Fiio DAC/amp that is comparable to the NuForce Icon uDAC-2?

If you do, then fine; be like Vicious and state what it is (i.e. model name/number) and what it costs and why you like it and be done with it. Thank you very much!

 

For such a subjective field like audio quality (imo), this thread exploded pretty bad .

I do agree with hulawafu77 on one point though. Engineering should design their products based on objective, quantifiable data, not "by ear". That's pretty dumb for an engineer (in any field) to do. Being in an engineering college, if I were to try to do engineering homework or projects based on something subjective as that, I'd rightfully get an F.

 

I'm very happy and proud to be in the minority who know NuForce is garbage. Any company that claims to engineer their products by ear should be ridiculed. A company that releases products with volume imbalance, should be ridiculed. A company that even amazes Stereophile for having inexcusably high jitter that is noticeable, should be ridiculed. A company that charges the price they do for all of the above, should be boycotted.

Some say ignorance is bliss. For me, I prefer to know, and am more than happy to inform others of how bad NuForce is. For less money, and for a higher quality product, just buy a Fiio. Companies like NuForce depend on "audiophiles" being ignorant and believe their marketing BS and believe that distortions and supposed "tuning" to be good. Yes this awful company claims they design their products, or "tune" their products by ear. Despicable hogwash. It's the same madness spewed about LPs and tube amps.

 

Have you got a valid link to a valid site (not some crazy place like head-fi) where it is shown that NuForce designs "by ear"???

Kindly post the link here. Thank you.

 

I've owned both the E7 and the uDAC2 at the same time. The E7 is a better package, in terms of results and also function. Can't speak for the new E17 as I don't really have a lot of use for portable DACs - for field recording I use an RME Babyface.

*Looks at above posts*

*Nice to know I'm proven right re defensiveness *

-------------------

The only must-have accessory for me for a notebook is plenty of spare AC adapters and many, many bags for them. Everything else is debatable (i.e. most of the accessories I might need to add, I'd likely be better off with a separate desktop).

 

If my new uDAC2 fails to work out as I hope, I'll consider getting either a E7 or E17; thanks for that.

I could care less about field recording; "all" I want is better portable sound from my laptop, and closed ear portable headphones to help with isolation.

That's a really excellent comment in this "essentials" thread.

But it's not so much the power brick as extra cords, because that is what tends to fail with the A/C adapters.

 

Check out the leckerton uha 6s mk2. Probably the best for buck audiophile grade dac/amp combo.


Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

Lots of competition, at that price point, for a portable DAC/amp.

e.g. Arcam - Solo - rPAC - USB/Headphone DAC for PC and MAC-Audio Advisor

 

Versatile unit but not in the same league as the leckerton that actually competes with dac/amp setups in the 400 usd price range

http://www.head-fi.org/t/624610/arcam-rpac-review

Sent from a Galaxy far, far away

 

A link to crazy head-fi doesn't prove anything; other than you being from a far away galaxy?

 

There can be a lot of biased content there but that was a balanced review.

Also trolling and antagonizing people who just don't agree with your points of view prove nothing but your immaturity level.

Sent from a Galaxy far, far away

 

Out of interest, how would you define a balanced review? I used to be a member but I've trolled-reviewed a couple of times and no-one caught me out. Few people question a well-written, well organised review - even if it contains BS.

There are a lot of good members on the site but the SNR is (ironically) very low.

 

I look for reviews that are well organized and test the equipment in a myriad of situations and with different audio equipment.
But most importantly I look for reviews that usually call out both the positives and negatives. There are too many reviews that are either all positive or all negative, those are what I tend to ignore.

Sent from a Galaxy far, far away

 

To start with, they state what their goals are.

e.g. my goals are a small and portable DAC/amp and a somewhat portable headphone set, for use with my laptop computers, and at under $300 total for the 2 units (DAC/amp and headphone).

I don't expect true high-end sound results, given what my goals are.

That's a thoughtful post. I'm impressed.

Agreed that head-fi has a "very low" Signal-to-Noise-Ratio. Not only that, for the same piece of equipment you can find opinions at head-fi that vary widely.

FWIW in addition to the Sennheiser 380 Pro headphone and NuForce uDAC2 that I already recently got, I went ahead and placed orders for the Fiio E17 DAC/amp and Shure 840 Pro headphone set.

I based my decisions largely on owner comments/reviews at Amazon, and to a much lesser extent on specs that Shure provides (i.e. that the 840's are slightly more efficient (play louder for the same amount of power) than the Shure 940's).

Still under $300 for the twosome, but I have to admit that this is my 2nd go around. >grin<

I'll perhaps start a separate thread (here at NBR), on this and related matters (e.g. flash memory for storing audio files (SD Card and/or USB stick)), as it is clearly well beyond the intent of this thread.

 

The M50's are the flavour of the year, but the SRH840's aren't bad either - definitely a better set for all-round monitoring due to their more balanced sound. I typically use an MDR-7520 for monitoring, though it's on the flabby-bassy side like the M50 - in terms of monitoring it's mostly vocals so it's an advantage. The only problem is that the 840 looks and feels the cheapest out of the lot (on-head and in-hand), but is more portable than the M50. Personally though again, I don't really walk around with headphones anymore - it's all IEM's now.

 

Iems Ftw but we should really start an audio thread to avoid cluttering this one.

Sent from a Galaxy far, far away

 

I've tried IEM's and have zero further interest in using them whatsoever!

I'll take a semi-portable headphone anytime sooner than IEMs.

FWIW I expect to have the semi-portable Shure SRH840 headphones delivered tomorrow, and am hopeful that I'll like them.

Main reason for this late followup is to say that the Fiio E17 DAC/amp showed up and worked for an hour and then crapped out! Argh!!

Flimsy connections is my best overall description of the Fiio E17; so buyer beware! Could be a nosebleed to return them, but glad that I purchased thru Amazon with regard to getting some/all of my money back!

 

I hear you on IEMs, it's a matter of comfort for me, I'll deal with the loss of portability.

Never had problems with FiiO products myself, it's possible you got a lemon. A friend had a DoA unit delivered, but that was replaced with a perfectly working one rather fast. It is the only non working FiiO product I've seen in my circle of friends, but we're by no means enough to be a representative sample.

 

We aren't talking entry-level Sony's or even stock Etys, but whatever.

 

Well I do see people walking around with headphones every now and then.

What's is SNR, is there some type of concept?
What's IEM? is it an earphone or something simular?
Is the term "monitoring" the same as listening, what does it mean?

P.S. I'm a idiot so please excuse me if I dont understand.

 

SNR = signal to noise ratio. As I said, something that Head-Fi is ironically very low in.

IEM's = in ear monitors. Differentiated from in-earphones like the Sony EX series, as they're used for monitoring (mixing or recording checking, or any type of professional critical-listening use) or on-stage use. Typical attributes are use of balanced-armature drivers and resulting enhanced isolation over regular in-earphones.

e.g. I use the Westone 4 as subway beaters and the custom-fit (where they take a mould of your ear canal and the earphones are shaped to exactly fit) JH13 for longer journeys. Look at any performer on stage these days and you'll usually find them using custom IEM's. It a) protects their hearing because the earphones isolates the noise around them, and b) they can listen to the mix they have to sing/mime along with not just crystal-clear, but also at a reduced volume. The same attributes make them really good outdoor & travelling headphones.

 

So may you suggest another forum to recommend me a listening device?

Wow IEMs seem a lot better. Do you think I should be using one, if I just use it for just listening to music and watching video (hd movie, series)? And for "subway beaters" you mean u use that IEM in the subway?

Also another stupid question IEMs can connect to laptop headphone jack (1/8 inch) right (don't want usb one)? Is amp or external dac necessary? May anyone show me and explain how this config goes (data to dac to listening device to amp?)?

 

Yes almost all iems use the standard headphone jack. And as they are fairly low Impedance and easy to drive, they won't require an amp.

Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

How about dac is that required? Would you recommend me using iem if I use it for hd movie, series and sometime gaming? for portability I want it enough to move around my house.

 

Depends on your laptops built in dac. Some multimedia and higher end laptops have some very good dacs, making an external dac redundant.


Sent from a Galaxy far, far away

 

How do I find what my dac is and if it's good?

 

How: Look at specs for your laptop. You'll at least get a pointer to your audio hardware, and you can also try using software such as Speccy and SIW.
If: Measure it. e.g. AP High Performance Audio Analyzer & Audio Test Instruments : 2700 Or find someone else who has.

 

Consider the old adage, "if you have to ask...." In most cases its most likely well above the threshold for most uses.

Think of it like considering V rated tires when your car's to speed is only 100 mph.

 

For in-home use, I don't see any point in using IEM's.

 

Yeah, I haven't seen something truly terrible in a while, I have seen some 2005-2007 kaptops with pretty bad sound chips, but nothing as bad in recent years.

I agree, I find larger headphones more comfortable, if you're a sweater, get something with velour pads, they breathe compared to pleather pads. I should mention though that I have an aversion to IEMs, maybe custom ones to fit my ears wouldn't suffer from this, but for now dropping enough cash for a good pair of custom IEMs I may not end up liking is not an option.

 

So, I found out I have Realtek ALC663 (<-- links to product description and features) may anyone confirm if this is alright?

I use a software called AIDA64 and found out I have Realtek ALC663 (i think).

I also heard that headphones provides better SQ than IEMs of the same price.

 

If there is brand tax, usually true, but sound is a subjective thing, so I'm pretty sure you'll find people who may like the sound signature of IEMs over headphones of the same price.

 

Particularly without a good reason. I learned that the hard way with contacts. No matter how much they insisted you couldn't feel them I could feel them. Many hundreds of dollars later I gave up and went back to my glasses.

Now if there were a compelling reason I needed to lose the glasses, then I would consider them temporarily and for that purpose. But for normal everyday activity, I'm fine with good old fashioned glasses. No muss, no fuss.

 

The stuff I use per request:
-Steelseries Sensei RAW mouse
-Steelseries 4HD mousepad
-Western Digital Passport 500GB, USB 3.0 model w/ the Nomad rugged case (review: Western Digital Nomad Rugged Hard Drive Case Review)
-Klipsch Image S2R (shame they aren't made anymore)
-WaterField Designs sleevecase w/ piggyback pouch and the strap

 

I'd say:

- A mouse, if you plan to do more than web browse/type. Wired or wireless, whatever you prefer.
- Headphones of some variety.
- A carrying case, be it a backpack or otherwise.
- Something to back up your files on, preferably an external hard drive.
- Eventually you'll probably need compressed air or similar due to dust, but that'll be awhile after you buy it.

I use a glasses-cleaning cloth for the screen.

I think an external keyboard for a laptop is often defeating the point, assuming it's not always at a desk. I never bought one for my laptop and it's been over half a decade now.

Also, a cooling pad and thermal grease really should not be necessary. For some laptops, they unfortunately might be, but one with well-designed cooling shouldn't need either.

 

Agreed on the TIM and cooling pad: shouldn't be necessary, can be nice to have a cooling pad though, personally, I don't have one because of the extra noise they make.

As for the keyboard, at the office, I got the dock hooked to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. However, they are not things I would carry with the laptop when I'm on the move.

 

What is TIM???

Cooler Master offers several laptop coolers with a USB powered single 140mm or 160mm fan.

These large fans move a lot of air, and run quiet, and are simple (no need for fan speed adjustment), and take minimal power so running them via a USB connector is no problem.

Totally agreed on this last part. When out (for short term use) I only carry a wireless mouse and the laptop. Sometimes only the laptop, as my Thinkpads are easily used with the Trackpoint. And IMO the Trackpoint is easily superior to any touchpad I've ever used.