I don’t think they have 2.5 to 3.5mm adapters do they?

none

It smooths out my 650s so so much, it is legitimately heavenly. There's a bit of warmth I can detect but you're right it isn't much. Still very much worth the cash.

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+1, my stack is working wonderfully except for the scratchy volume knob, pulling the knob outwards a little seemed to help quite a bit, minimizes the friction noise between the plastic knob and the aluminum chassis

I have (and have had) a bunch of Schiit and never had a problem with any of them.

I've worn IEMs for hours on end for many years, and I don't think I've ever had that "underwater" experience as you mentioned.

Maybe only with some really cheap silicon ear tips. I tend to prefer foam ones.

I guess it differs from person to person. For me, it's perfectly comfortable once I get the right size ear tip in. It's snug and I forget they're there after a few minutes.

It's not something I've ever thought about, so I wouldn't say I "got used to it". To be honest I've never heard this complaint, but I kind of understand what you're talking about. But my breathing sounds the same, and I definitely can't hear my footsteps at all. It just feels like wearing earplugs. Yes things sound muffled, that's the whole point. I'd say give it a little time and see if you adjust. Does transparency mode fix it for you?

Interesting. Well, I’m always okay to exchange until I get new ones.

But for now, I love the one’s I’ve got.

You are 100% correct. I have this sonafabitch plugged into a power strip and there is no hiss, hum, or noise.

OMG! Tube amps give off the most amazing smell! The best I can describe it is "burning electrical heat". It's the best

That is one of the many reasons I just do not enjoy IEMs. They aren't for everyone, but they do seem to be increasing in popularity.

When I was in college, I would just suck it up and wear my Apple Earpods around campus. It would make me appreciate my home setup much more lol.

I have both. The main difference is the corrected treble response on the CRA+ which no longer sounds grainy, harsh and overly accentuated on treble heavy music and songs with vocal sibilance present. As for the bass, i'm using short and wide bore Moondrop Spring tips on mine, and the bass response is generally similar aside from the fact that on some tracks the CRA+ has a touch more warmth and midbass presence. I don't think the bass ruins anything on both CRA and CRA+, but then again i find iems like ety extremely limp in terms of bass response so i can see people thinking that these are too bassy.

Been running a magni/modi stack for over 4 years. Other than a scratchy volume pot, no issues to report.

Won't tip over.

I've rolled a lot of tubes with next to no success, from Tung-Sol to black base NOS RCA, EH6SN7 Gold, a few Foton 6H8C's from the 60s, German 6SN7 TAD and after that I stopped because it makes no sense hunting super rare tubes that could break or decide to go microphonic at any time.

All tubes I've tested sound great, but they are all very, very similar to each other in that amp. In fact, they're so similar that any noticeable change could be placebo. Heck even testing things in the evening makes things sound different compared to during the day and that creates some bias towards certain tubes, but in a blind test I most likely couldn't tell them apart.

The TA-26 is absolutely amazing, clean, no buzzing or humming, looks stunning, but tbh, I don't get what many reviews are talking about. There is next to no tube sound, maybe some more dynamics, a little bit more bass, that's it. Even something like the Fosi audio T3 I've tested gave me more distortion. I prefer the TA-26 by a lot, but it's not a game changer when coming from solid state.

Dude so good

I think with tube rolling you can get a pretty distorted sound on the TA-26

>adds a little weight to music, which I like.

stop tempting me, please for the love of god and solvency.

I hear ya again. So there are several Reddit channels where people post pics of their “setups”. Could be PC, desk, AV equipment. I suspect most are younger folks. Its the new normal in the internet age.

There is a whole generation of folks that probably value “looks” as part of their equation to buy anything.

I know, It’s unfortunate……even when shopping for an iPhone….the reviews were mostly about the look and feel. Nevermind that technically iPhones are behind the Samsungs. Lol.

That invisible thing with China….they are basically our bank. They lend us money and without them, we wouldn’t be flourishing. And vice versa. Economics is incredibly complicated.

I have literally never judged an amplifier by how it looks. So that one's new on me. Some of my hifi is on a Bryston amp which is literally just a heatsink with binding posts. Not a pretty thing.

I mean when it comes to how something sounds, I say buy it from wherever it comes from. But value for money... You'll always get more from China. But there's an invisible cost.

I too am an arson enthusiast.

I hear ya. I did have schiit and I didn’t like the look, buttons, build etc.

Fiio seems to have figured out the market for both Audiophiles and ignorant audio consumers.

My Fiio has a 2nd USB C port - they assumed I wanted a dedicated port for my macbook and they were right.

They added an EQ on phone apps for Bluetooth in case I wanted to watch TV. They were right.

They have cute little USB dongles. They assumed folks will want portable dacs amps because more mobile devices are being used. They were right.

I know this is controversial, but they added MQA because some folk’s really feel Tidal Masters does sound better, even if we all know its not real “lossless”. They were right.

For headphones, I been paying extra for Sennheiser that were made in Germany or Ireland. I have a special heart for German and Japanese engineering as I studied Industrial Economics.

I been avoiding HifiMan because it is china based. And I know USA will eventually go to war with China.

But the day that HifiMan makes a superior product over HD800s for the money, then I may consider.

I suppose it's not like it's completely normal. It's just the tradeoff for whatever convenience airpods offer them.

To me, no convenience is really worth being uncomfortable so I don't use IEMs for long.

But, you are contributing to the Chinese slavery industry rather than paying a skilled American technician to make your amp.

Its a real thing. We do need to take it seriously.

For value for money yes you'll usually get more buying chinese goods than American. But you're sending your money into the wrong economy and in the long run we run the risks of losing these skills.