I don't always have fond memories of all my exes, but I do for this one....

This is a photo of the Senn PX100 (the original one), and it was my beater pair of headphones for a while. I used to throw them in my backpack and they went with me everywhere without a word of complaint. Now they are retired and have been put to pasture, except once in a while I saddle them up and we go for a ride.

They are terrible headphones for travel because they're open, but they are light, comfortable (for on-ears) because of their gentle clamp force, plus as a bonus they are collapsible and they came with their own hard case and have surprisingly good build quality for the price.

But the reason I love them most is because of their sound. The PX100s (and their successor model, the PX100-II) have a rich warm sound profile with surprisingly prominent bass given that they are lightweight, small and open. They are great all-around headphones for a multitude of musical genres from EDM to classical, with a knack of making vocals (especially female vocals) sound cozy and natural. Soundstage is surprisingly decent, too.

They aren't perfect, for sure. They do lack granular levels of detail, the bass bleeds up the frequency spectrum, and treble rolls off significantly, which has led to them being described as "veiled" or "dark" in some reviews.

The reason I stuck with them for so long (and still listen to them once in a while) is because they made listening sessions just so much fun. In fact, I don't think I owned a pair of headphones that were as much fun as the PX100s until I bought my Philips Fidelio X1, which is high praise indeed for the little Senn.

The original PX100s are getting hard to find, but you can still find them used for cheap. I'm confident mine will be a collector's item one day. I haven't modded them in any way apart from changing the pads, and don't plan to.

The PX100II and IIis are outrageously expensive when compared to the original PX100s -- which were priced at something like $30 since they were marketed as direct competition for the PortaPros -- and don't offer a huge amount of value from a price-performance perspective at MSRP, but the PX100 IIi was recently a deal on Woot for $30, a price that actually puts them back into play as direct competition for the PortaPros.

Ah, there's nothing like an ex you still get along with...

Windows sound vs. ASIO vs. WASAPI

There was a time when windows sound drivers sucked. Big time. That's the reason why ASIO was popularized, to get away from the terrible (and I'm being kind here) Windows Kmixer kernel that mangled sound like a testicular vice.

Steinberg developed ASIO (Audio stream I/O) to bypass the truly terrible Windows NT 5.x Kmixer kernel. When ASIO was released the pro audio community jumped on ASIO not only because it was capable of direct bit perfect delivery, but also because it supported 24 bit sampling (Win only managed a max of 16 bit at the time).

But Windows has come a long way since the days of Kmixer, which was discontinued for the Win Vista release. And people seem to have forgotten how clunky ASIO really is. Current iterations of native windows sound are as robust as ASIO, less clunky in implementation, and perfectly capable of supporting "audiophile" setups.

So what's the huge advantage in running ASIO or WASAPI over native windows drivers? Surely it's not because of remarkable improvements in sound quality as touted by some hypemongers in reviews (please don't take a ride on that hype train!). The only advantage is this: if you don't want irritating system noises to intrude when you are listening to your music why then WASAPI exclusive mode bypasses them.

Some thoughts about the Beyerdynamic A20 amp

The Beyerdynamic A20 is a straightforward headphone amp with RCA in, and 2 1/4 inch Neutrik headphone jacks out. It has a very clean Teutonic design reminiscent of the Beyerdynamic A1, features quality components (with a very smooth Alps pot) and has RCA out that is hot (when the input is active) even when the device is turned off.

It puts out 170 mW at 250 ohms and 100 mW at 600 ohm, so not a slouch powering higher impedance headphones. It is worth noting though that the rated output impedance is a whopping 100 ohms.

Looks wise, it is very pretty, and reminds me a lot of the Burson Soloist (in terms of the quality of construction and the solidly manufactured aluminum enclosure.)

What does it sound like?

Sound wise, it is transparent and neutral. A great pairing with Beyer headphones (after all Beyer designed the amp), but it does struggle with power hungry planars. I did not have the opportunity to hear the A20 with IEMs but from what I have read the pairing is hit-or-miss.

What's the competition?

The Burson Soloist SL has a brighter, more forceful sound overall, and also has gain selection. Keep in mind that the Soloist SL puts out 2W at 16 ohms, so it is much more suited for higher end orthos. In the head-to-head between the two the Soloist SL wins, unless you are looking for a transparent amp.

The Schiit Asgard 2 isn't in the same league, and at its usual $250 price point, is clearly the more value-rich selection from a price-performance perspective.

The most favorable matchup for the A20 is the Violectric V90. Both have pre outs, dual headphone jacks, and similar sound profiles. The V90 does have a price disadvantage, though, compared to the A20 on sale.

The best way to think of the A20 is probably to consider it to be a sophisticated version of the Objective O2 amp. Is it worth the money over the O2? It depends if you have the discretionary income to throw on an amp that isn't feature rich. In sum, if you are assembling a neutral setup you need to take a look at the A20, especially if it is on sale. But from a purely price-performance perspective, you may want to take an equally close look at the O2.

My favorite sub-$1000 setup

Q: What's your personal all-time favorite setup under $1000?

This one.

From a price-performance perspective, the  combination of the Pro-ject Box DAC S FL -> Little Dot Mk 3 with NOS Mullard M8100s -> Sennheiser HD650 really shines. This setup projects an analog-ey gooey tube sound and affords a maximally euphoric listening experience for under $900. It makes every genre I am into sound good, and that is saying something. The best aspect of this combination is that almost anyone can afford this setup, and the only folks who will hate it are those who worship the gods of transparency.

To break the components down:

The Box dac DAC S FL is, in my opinion, the best price-performance NOS dac you can buy. It has a very different sound than typical sigma delta DACs. Its analog-ey distortion makes digital files sound like vinyl. Having said that, I would suggest NOT buying an NOS DAC as your very first DAC, though.

The Little Dot Mk 3 is probably the best price-performance OTL tube amp you can buy, especially ebcause your choice for the tube amp selection is determined to a considerable extent by the degree of synergy between amp + headphones.  I would suggest that you NOT get an OTL tube amp (or any tube amp, for that matter) as your first amp.

Mullard NOS M8100 tubes have a super warm profile with gooey tube distortion, and if I had to describe Mullard sound in one word I would say "treacle", to borrow a word from my friends across the pond. They are a wonderful representation of what tube sound is all about. I would suggest NOT getting reissue Mullards, they are not the same as the real deal.

The Sennheiser HD650 has a wonderfully dark and comfortable sound. They are not neutral, sure, but their forgiving nature sets them apart. They excel at representing instruments realistically, add intimacy to vocals, and work for every genre from EDM to classical. Some have described them as "laid back", but they are certainly not boring. Their pairing with OTL tube amps is magical. I would suggest that you NOT get them if you want a neutral or bright sound profile, or if you plan to run them off portable devices.

And did I mention, the best part of this combination is the sub $1k budget? That leaves plenty of change left over to subscribe to Spotify or Tidal.

 And that should make you smile for a long time.

Again, I do want to emphasize, a NOS DAC + tube amp combo probably isn't the best idea if you are new to the world of personal audio and just getting your toes wet with the hobby. You will probably be better off in the long run easing into tube sound / vintage DACs gradually rather than starting with them.

Will a 20 foot extension cable lower the sound quality from my amp to my headphones?

Q: Will a 20 foot extension cable lower the sound quality from my amp to my headphones?

A: If you run really long cable, you have to watch out for two things: [1] the cable may pick up noise, particularly a hum, and [2] the signal may degrade if you run lengthy stretches of cable, usually because the voltage drops over long distances. And by long distances, I mean long distances, not 20 feet.

You can fix #1 by using with better shielding, and #2 by using XLR out instead of RCA.

But in your case, you aren't running cable through the entire neighborhood, just 20 feet, which is well within the tolerances for RCA unless there is a significant EMI transmitter between the your amp and your headphones.

In sum, you will be fine.

PS: Veni's Trivia of the Day: the term "RCA" in RCA cables comes from the Radio Corporation of America, who first used the format to connect their Victrola record players to their radios in the late 40s or early 50s. Prior to that they were using RCA cables to connect their record player pickups to the chassis, but not as interconnects.

Some thoughts about the Fiio E18

The E18 Kunlun (whats with Fiio naming products after mountains, eh?) works as a headphone amp that pairs to android phones via USB using an OTG cable, a 24/96 USB DAC (it has a Tenor TE7022L chip to receive USB and a Burr Brown PCM1798 DAC chip), as a standalone headphone amp, as an external DAC for your computer, and even as a coax out source.

The coolest (if spotty) feature it offers is the ability to play/pause the song on your phone using a button on the E18.

Plus it has a volume potentiometer! And in a pinch it can charge your phone.

It's regular price of $150-160 is a bit steep, but when it's on sale at the $120-130 price point it looks very attractive from a price-performance perspective.

A criticism that has been leveled against the E18 on more than one occasion is that it exhibits electromagnetic interference (EMI) when paired with a GSM smartphone. GSM buzz is an issue with most electronic equipment. It is an unfortunate side effect of the frequencies GSM uses and fact that GSM phones use the TDMA channel access protocol to sync to towers. Usually EMI is worst when the phone uses the EDGE data system. Since newer GSM technologies are less prone to GSM buzz, it may be worth disabling EDGE service on your phone if possible. Of course your mileage maay vary because there are other causes for interference too.

Of course we could eliminate GSM buzz altogether if everyone switched to verizon, but that would be a pretty terrible solution too.

Some thoughts about the Soundmagic HP200

Soundmagic are better known for their IEMs, and also do OEM and ODM for others, but came up with a few full sized models to enhance the range of their offerings. There was a little bit of hype after launch but it seems to have evaporated since then.

The Soundmagic HP200 are open, full size and exhibit a warm V shaped sound profile characterized by floppy loose bass. They are a competent pair of open headphones for $150 but at the $200-250 they retail for (at full price), they get blown away by the likes of the competition, for example the Philips Fidelio X1.