Dudes....because of sheer boredom, I made a Wikipedia entry of Jaben Network!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaben_network

It's my first attempt at making a Wikipedia article.
Didn't know what else to write without making it into an "advertisement".

It's quite brief, but hey, at least it's in there.

Oh and I forgot. For the more experienced, please edit the article if you can. Put in pics, references (are there any more references?), possibly tell more about it. There's just so little on the net about Jaben.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Jun 17 2012, 09:11 PM

Haha...naaaah.
I was bored and went looking around Wikipedia for something. Then it occurred to me Jaben Network doesn't have any entry in Wikipedia. So I thought, "Heck, I'd give it a shot".

There already is one.
But dang, Jaben Network is already deleted, because it's 'unambiguous' advertising. Also that it's still not significant enough for an encyclopedia entry. Oh well, we better wait for it to be a bit more famous before it can go in there.

Yeah. I thought it would be cool to have Jaben Network acknowledged. I mean, they are getting very big very fast and very very popular across the globe by audiophiles, and if that doesn't justify its place in the encyclopedia, I dunno what will. Imagine, from a single shop lot in Singapore in 2005, to Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Australia and South Africa by 2012. I'd call that significant growth. I guess it'll have to be well-known enough, and not only to audio purists.

Yeah I guess having a relatively unknown company in the encyclopedia might seem like advertising.

That's not a hike, that's a frickin' mountain climb!

Holy s**t those are beautiful!

With noise cancelling activated it may reduce the sound quality of your music. They usually cancel out the lower frequencies up to the low mids, so you might find the music to be a bit muffled. With the feature off, they might sound pretty good. So unless you will actually use the noise cancelling feature, for things other than while listening to music, then I suggest saving the fund for a good noise isolating headphone. I am guessing that you are looking for a headphone that will have a similar sound signature as a BA earphone, right?

AFAIK (from reading only, so take with a grain of salt), that the M50 is quite bassy as it is a DJ monitor headphone. Shure SRH 840 and AiAiAi TMA-1 Studio are monitoring headphones.

For the Grado, it is an open back headphone, so isolation will be a problem as well as sound leakage. I have a Grado SR60i (my only headphone really) and is the SR225i is any better, I'd say it is worth the pick. Although, that is according to my sound sig taste. You may not like the slightly "in-your-face" sound Grado is famous for. They are generally very good with 'Rock' music. May or may not have the amount of bass you want, I don't know, so you have to find that out for yourself. Oh and they have quite a coloured sound, but for a lot of the time, for the better.

No comment for the AKG, except for that it may be the best looking one in your list.

Would you like it to be able to play FLAC? If so, a good and cheap one would be a Sansa Clip+, Clip Zip, or Fuze+. From my experience, the Fuze+ is a little finicky and takes time to get used to, but has the biggest screen of the 3. Neutral (flat) and warm sound with quite a lot of power to drive IEMs to deafening volumes without breaking a sweat. The only buying option it seems is to buy them online if no store you see sell them here. AFAIK maybe a small number stores are bringing them for a limited time as Sansa doesn't sell their music players here in physical stores. Although some people in this forum here are selling them. Look for the trusted ones.

I've tried a Sony E465. It's a 16GB player, with no expandable memory slot. With every enhancement it has turned off and EQ flat, I say it is quite a good sounding player, with nicely done bass and neutral sound which is a tad bit analytical. It does get loud enough without crackling so it has the power to drive IEMs quite nicely. Tried it with an Atrio M5 which is pretty warm so it matches it quite well. No FLAC support though.

Others for RM500 that are good....ummmmm...you missed the sale I had a few years ago of my Hifiman HM-601. Just kidding. I have no idea, those are the only ones I can remember tried or used.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Aug 24 2012, 09:01 PM

Wow, I found a Marshall headphone at a Celcom centre in 1Borneo. It was beautiful! I had a look at its size and definitely tiny. It will not cover my entire ears, and won't be very comfortable.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Sep 30 2012, 07:07 PM

Everyone is getting new things but me!
No matter la. I'll wait for the latest and greatest and save my money for a little while. My main priority now is building up my body. (I can almost hear the sound of cash flying away whenever I look at my new muscles in the mirror. )

As of now, I have no equipment whatsoever, other than the SR60i which I gave to my father.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Oct 10 2012, 02:14 PM

OMG!
How does it sound?
Do they still have the connector issue?
How durable are they?
I would like to have them as my workout IEM. I feel lonely and less motivated without rockin' music when I workout, since I sold off my Atrio.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Oct 11 2012, 04:05 PM

I've had the older generation Bose In-Ear. It had good bass feel for a semi-earbud, and a treble that was never piercing. It did perform well with low volume as well, as the vocals were clear and words can be heard quite easily. However there was a bit of bass bleed to the mids and female vocals weren't so great.

Overall the Bose IE was quite nice actually, there was nothing wrong with the way it sounded. It was the silicon tips and price that were the most annoying.
Also the cable doesn't really fare well towards the humid and hot temperatures in this country. It went yellow and started to soften up and peel off in 5-6 months.

If the newer gen had fixed the bass bleed, fixed the annoying silicon tips (they like to fall off and I had one of them missing), and made the treble a tad bit more revealing(which I read that it is), it would be quite good. But it was already overpriced then, and seeing as the improved version is about RM60 (IINM) more expensive, I think an audition and comparison would be necessary for you to determine for yourself whether they are worth the premium. I found that the cheaper Sony MDR-EX300 was a better performer, but that was a true IEM, not a semi. It did however made me realise how much treble roll off the Bose IE had.

Also, it was by far the MOST COMFORTABLE pair of earphones I have ever had, ever. An ordinary earbud would feel itchy and would easily fall off, the Bose IE had that feeling that it would fall off but never does and the silicon tips were really soft and blends in. The new design tips should fix that falling off feeling. Again, if they have a test unit, try it out.

Hey there is an owner of a Bose IE2 here, who was it? I forgot.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Oct 11 2012, 09:10 PM

You feel pain? Must be the new design eartips, designed to make it stay better in the ear. They may have compromised the comfort a bit. I'm sure you'll get used to it.

Frankly, coming from Bose, other than the price they are actually pretty good sounding, and very good for longer listening sessions.

If you feel like upgrading and have saved enough money, and you like bassy sound sig, you can try Future Sonics Atrio. Seriously that thing has bass like no other, and surprisingly balanced with adequate treble detail. Some have comfort issues with them and some don't like the sound (they are like not into much bass). I had them for quite some time and loved every single second of hearing it sing. Some other IEMs with bass are from Sennheiser, there's a Shure dynamic IEM that's also fun and different, there's also some from Fischer Audio, there's also Radius (the older gen is quite affordable and I had one too, verrry nice).

Heck, just go to Jaben if you feel the upgrade itch. You know the drill. Try anything you can, leave nothing behind!

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Oct 12 2012, 09:38 PM

I'm interested in opening a high quality budget portable audio shop here at Sabah...but I don't have enough cash to open one up.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Oct 18 2012, 09:56 PM

That I can tell you.
Both have different signatures. Both are quite mid-centric but Grado's mids are special. They are elevated a bit right up to the low trebles. As a result their treble is a bit 'hotter', more energetic. The XBAs are far more relaxed, but the high end XBAs do have better detail, may be because they are closed IEMs and makes them more intimate, and also due to the multi-driver setup (which is actually quite well done IMO).

I like the energy of the Grado SR60i, and also how deep the bass actually goes, and the XBAs are a welcome break from all that treble sometimes. For the sheer enjoyment of rock music, the Grado is irreplaceable by any XBA series.

YMMV however, but that's how I feel.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Nov 7 2012, 06:02 PM

Anything that requires the conversion of digital signals to analogue signals require a DAC. Computers have DAC (they're in sound cards, video cards, I assume also those vibrating game controllers correct me if I'm wrong), they're in phones, they're in music players, they're in virtually anything digital that needs analogue conversion, for us to interpret them, be it sound or video or anything.

In this case we're talking about conversion of digital audio to signals we can convert into audio, that is, analogue electrical signals. Some are good at it, some not so.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Nov 9 2012, 05:17 PM

There is an external DAC-amp combo specifically for Apple products that promises to deliver better performance compared to the internal DAC of the Apple, I forgot what it's called. But it is very expensive and could easily cost you 2/3 the price of a new Iphone. So in short, you can but it will cost you.

IINM there are lineout docks available for you to bypass the Iphone's internal amp circuit so you can use your own amp. That could give you a decent enough upgrade in sound for less cost.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Nov 9 2012, 05:45 PM

Yes. If your phone says 'lineout' whenever you plug in a headphone, that's not a real lineout, let us be clear about that. I'm not sure if the Iphone does that, so I'm just making sure here that that is not what you meant by 'lineout'.
You need to use a Lineout Dock (LOD for short). It will be attached to the Iphone's USB port. Fiio produces them, I'm not sure of other manufacturers, or if they have ALL Apple products covered. Some DIY experts can make their own.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Nov 9 2012, 06:11 PM

OMG, the Legato-E is so sexy.....