What's a safe volume level for someone who flies a lot?

Q: Hi , I wish to know what's the safe level volume to be used with In ear monitoring headphones , I'm a young commercial pilot who recently got selected with an airline n so I was wondering the music I hear from day to day life , does it damage my hearing capabilities?

A: Safe volume = lowest volume that you can listen comfortably

Keep in mind that counting the number of bars on a phone's scale may not objectively reflect the intensity or loudness of sound exposure. Measuring decibels is the only objective way of quantifying sound levels, but that's often difficult to do ith IEMs. The good news is that typically folks listen to music at lower dB levels with IEMs than full size headphones because IEMs are in your ear canal and seal better.

If you are flying a lot, probably tthe most important thing is to resist the temptation to increase the volume of the music as external ambient noise increases. Drowning noise with more noise is never a good idea.

Wax on, wax off

Q: How do you clean IEM sound tunnel/canal? My IEMs always end up with a lot of wax deposited inside the little tube.

A: Many IEMs come with their own cleaning tool. Alternatively, you can DIY your own with some thin wire (make a loop) or use something like a toothpick or safety pin (carefully!). Avoid using chemicals or dipping the IEM in solvents. Debrox (hydrogen peroxide) may be a good choice to clean ear canals, but it's a terrible choice to clean IEM canals, b ecause the peroxide fizzes and gets everywhere.

Family Feud - the Onkyo DP-X1 versus the Pioneer XDP-100

The Onkyo DP-X1 and Pioneer XDP-100 are very similar  digital audio players (DAPs). Both have similar designs (the big difference is that the DP-X1 has a dual DAC/amp configuration that allows balanced output) and both are marketed to audiophiles.

I did a side-by-side of the Onkyo DP-X1 and the Pioneer XDP-100 before going with the Pioneer over the Onkyo primarily because I didn't want a dual DAC or balanced configuration. I'll explain why.

First, I primarily use my DAP when I am traveling, and I don't take super expensive IEMs on the road with me, mainly because I have lost quite a few. My usual "travel kit" now-a-days is a Shure SE535 and usually a second IEM with an inline mic/remote in case I'm taking calls. I try hard not to take anything more expensive than the SE535 with me on my travels because I'm convinced I'll lose them. To prove my point, I'm now on my third pair of 535s having lost the previous two when traveling, which tells you how absent minded I am...

And second, apart from the inevitable unbridled depression that will set in if I lose the more expensive DP-X1, the primary reason I chose the XDP-100 is because I don't think you need a balanced setup when on the road. Airports and airplanes (and trains and buses and cars) aren't really ideal listening environments, and I'm not really in the mood for critical listening on a long flight as much as I want to drown out most of the ambient noise and catch up on my Spotify playlists while I get some work done.

Plus, the best thing about wearing IEMs on long flights isn't the fact that you can engage in a critical listening session, but that you can always use them as an excuse not talk to the person sitting next to you.

Do not underestimate the power of the DAC side of the Force - Pioneer XDP-100 portable digital audio player mini review

Pioneer Home Electronics was bought by Onkyo last year, and in the process of aligning their brands, two very similar portable digital audio players (DAPs) released - the Pioneer XDP-100 and the Onkyo DP-X1. They are very similar, the primary difference being extra circuitry on the Onkyo DP-X1 that allows it to run headphones in a balanced configuration. And as a consequence, the Onkyo costs more.

The Pioneer XDP-100 runs Android Lollipop (5.1.1) with some modest tweaks. This means that in addition to playing files you have stored on the device,  you can use wifi to stream music using apps you download from the Google Play store, like Spotify or Tidal.

So without further ado, let's examine the Pioneer XDP-100.

First the looks. The XDP-100 looks like a premium DAP, and feels like a premium DAP with its expensive-looking aluminum case. Build quality is impeccable. The interface is quick and responsive. Screen glare is prominent in sunlight. The 4.7 inch screen  with its 1280 x 720 resolution isn't HD enough for decent video playback compared to most modern high-end smartphones.

But then the XDP-100 isn't intended to be your video consumption device, it's primarily an mp3 player and a device that streams audio from online services. To achieve this, it has an ESS Sabre ES90182KM DAC, which sounds like, well, pretty much every other delta sigma DAC, and supports up to 24 bit /192 kHz audio. Solid state amplification is acheieved by a Sabre 9601A chip. The DAC and amp chips are separated from the rest of the components on the circuit board in an attempt to minimize noise, which is a clever design decision. The XDP-100 supports pretty much every file format you can throw at it, including WAV, FLAC/ ALAC, Ogg Vorbis, AAC and of course MP3. It also supports DSD (DSF/DSDIFF) and MQA. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack for output, and it can also output via the micro USB port and an OTG cable.

There are three gain settings to optimize listening levels with your headphones. Battery life is advertised at 16 hours with 24 bit/ 96 kHZ FLAC files, I get 14-15 hours in real life, which isn't bad, especially given how much juice the screen sucks up.

In addition to wifi it supports bluetooth. Power output is 75 mW per channel at 32 ohms, which isn't much but then this is a device intended for portable use (although the headphone jack supports line out, so in a pinch you could connect it to active speakers or even into an amp). Pioneer rates the XDP-100 for headphones up to 300 ohms but it struggled with my Beyerdymanic DT990 Pro (250 ohms). And it simply does not deliver enough current to bring the best out of planar headphones. What it is best paired with are a pair of sensitive IEMs.

Now if you plan to play exclusively WAV or DSD files on any DAP, you need either lots of storage or *very short* playlists. Even though internal storage is 32 GB which is anemic by today's standards, two microSD slots allow you to add an extra 400GB, which makes running the XDP-100 with an all-DSD playlist a viable option. And if you (like most folks in the universe today) have a collection of predominantly MP3 or even FLAC files, you can stuff a *lot* of songs into the XDP-100 if you so desire.

And now on to the sound. The best feature of the XDP-100 is its lack of floor noise, even with finicky IEMs like the Shure SE846. Tonally the XDP-100 sounds relatively neutral, with clean highs and distortion-free bass, my only gripe is that there is a very modest granularity to the mids (which is most obvious with classical music). With that said, it does a good job of "getting out of the way" of the signal, and doesn't appreciably color the sound in any way.

With respect to the user interface, if you are comfortable with Android you will be comfortable with the XDP-100. Home screen scrolling is fast and smooth, apps start up just like my phone.

I like Pioneer's music player app, I use it for onboard files - I load up songs on the dual microSDs using Pioneer's XDAP for Windows to manage my transfers from PC to XDP-100.

It came with Tidal and Spotify apps preinstalled, if memory serves me right. Google Play store is on the device, but I don't remember downloading the apps when I unboxed the XDP-100. I subscribe to both, but then I pretty much only use Spotify on the go because I have a bunch of playlists lined up for offline use: it just takes a few minutes to go "out with the old, in with the new" when I have access to wifi and in just a few minutes hey presto I have a whole new set of songs I wanted to listen to and I'm good to go.

It did come preloaded with other bloatware apps that I got rid of (OnkyoMusic, for example). I only have a few apps on the XDP100 apart from streaming services + music player (like Audible, Flightaware, the New York Times) so I havent really stressed it to see if it becomes sluggish with multiple apps running at once. I don't play games on it, mainly because the screen isn't as good as my phone.

In sum, the UI is like any typical android phone. Pioneer music player is great. Compared to the crappy DAP interfaces in many other products (Fiio I'm looking at you) this is 2 to the power 64 times better (sorry, I'm playing No Mans Sky right now and couldn't help myself).

Awesome bass fun time!

Q: What are the holy grail bass headsets? I want to buy a pair of headphones that have awesome bass and make listening to music enjoyable.

A: Holy grail bass (because the first thing you say when you listen to them is "Jesus!") = Sony XB500/700/1000

Ark of the covenant bass (because I'll probably find the freaking ark of the covenant more easily than I find a D7k) = Denon D5000/7000

Antichrist bass (preceded of course by the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse bass, which are obviously Bose, Skullcandy, Monster and the Audio Technica AD900X) = Beats. Any Beats, because that's the brand audiophiles most love to beats up on.

The great pretender bass (it thinks it's a king, but it ain't) = the Audio technica ATHM50X. It has bassm, more bass, and pretgty much nothing but the bass.

The Shadow (because it actually has awesome bass, but no-one knows it exists) = JVC HA-SZ2000 - come on, admit it, how many of you know it's out there as an option: ready, waiting, even yearning for bassheads to pick it up and try it out?

Twins with an attitude (like the girls who picked you up at a bar and showed you what a "fun" time means until you collapsed in exhaustion at 5 am the next morning) = the Philips Fidelio X1/X2

Comparing two Sony bass monsters

Q: What's the difference between the Sony XB500 and the XB700? Why are they so sought after?

A: Sony discontinued the awesome XB500/700/1000 and replaced them with abominations, for reasons that no human, except maybe a couple of folks in a building at 171 Konan Minato-ku, can possibly comprehend.

Since then, obviously due to the fact that [1] they were awesome bass monsters, [2] they were discontinued, and [3] supplies dwindled over time, they have become sought-after collectors items, and have naturally increased in value.

The XB700 has bigger drivers. The memory foam pads are about the size of a CD for comparison, so they are bigger around the ears than the XB500. As a consequence the volume of air that resonates is also greater.

The XB500 has more raw bass. XB700 bass is a little more subtle, and a little tighter. Subbass extension is also better than the 500. Kick drums sound a little crisper, and low end basslines are a little more defined than the 500. 500 bass is more in-your-face, and upper bass rolloff bleeds into the mids audibly, as a consequence of which the mids appear to be a little more recessed than those of the 700.

Soundstage is about the same for both, i.e. not very spectacular. I have convinced myself that 700 soundstage is a little wider than the 500, but IMO that is probably a figment of my imagination than real.

Purely as a bass monster, I would rank the 500 higher, but between the two I end up reaching for the 700 more for EDM. The way I think of the 700 is that it is a more refined version of the 500, i.e. the 500 in a tuxedo.

Is the Bravo Ocean tube headphone amp worth buying?

Q: Is the Bravo Ocean tube headphone amp worth buying?

A: Probably not. Its not a real tube amp, but a class A hybrid. It features a meh design, cheap components, bottom-of-the-barrel stock tube (Shu Guang 12AU7, which is one of the truly god-awful sounding tubes out there), QC issues longer than Lindsay Lohan's arrest record, etc.

But having said this, what are your options if you want a cheap hybrid amp? Well there is the HifiMan EF2A, and it does have a built in USB dac, but that has such a high preset gain and noise floor it is essentially unusable with low impedance headphones.

And the xDuoo TA01, which is more unknown than an uncredited extra in the battle scene in a Peter Jackson movie (but at least it has adjustable gain).

And then there is the Bravo trio -- the v1 (best used as a paperweight), the v2 (which is just as meh as the Ocean, mainly because, well, it is pretty much the Ocean, except naked, which means you are more likely to electrocute yourself on the amp) and the v3, which oddly has an equlaizer which is as useful as a third nipple on a dude.

So where does the enthusiast with a desire for tube sound but no money in their wallet go to get their tube fix?

Well the Little Dot Mk 1+ is probably the best choice, if you can get past the lack of customer support and huge expense shipping it back to LD if you get a lemon.

There's the Hifiman EF3, which is basically the EF2A without the DAC and with a gain switch. But tube rolling paired tubes can be expensive, especially if you go NOS.

Or there is the Bravo v2 or Ocean. The Ocean gives you an enclosure and thus better heat dissipation (Bravo uses the enclosure as a heat sink), and you could get a decent 12AU7 tube for cheaper than a pair of 6AK7s for the EF3.

So in sum, its not very good, but one of the cheapest options for getting into hybrid amps.

In the country of the blind, the one-eyed hybrid tube amp is king.