Had an opportunity to snag this Aurender A1000 for an amazing price including a Samsung 8TB SSD with over 1TB of music on it. This will replace the Holo Red that’s currently in my 2ch system but will probably eventually make its way to my TV setup (with HDMI ARC) once I upgrade to a big boy source again.
It’s Roon Ready so I’m going to compare Roon and the Aurender software as well.
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The Aurenders were always a close runner up for me. I am interested in how they compare to the Antipodes stuff. Their app looks fancy and they had some cool things going with battery power.
Aurender is knee deep in the streaming business so they should know what they’re doing. You plan to use it USB out or Coax out?
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For now USB out with my Sinope cable into the MPD8
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I spent I lot of time with them at socal canjam and really enjoyed them. They are super comfortable and remind me of the tuning of the atrium. I hope you like them.
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These had rave reviews as not just plugs but attenuators that dont change sound, just the volume. Two sets of inserts for how much you want cut off.
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I’ve actually had some comfort issues with them. I’m thinking it’s a combination of my small head and how little they clamp. They aren’t applying pressure evenly around my ears, and it’s causing some discomfort at the bottom of them.
They sound great though. Not the most resolving things in the world, but that’s not what they are going for. So far I’ve been pretty happy.
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Nice setup! The guy who makes them, Homero, is really friendly and I’m sure he can help you out with the clamp issues. I do have a big head 
so had no issues with the fit.
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Ive had these for like a month now but It was the last purchase I made and its awesome
Questyle cma18 - I think its the best sounding pocketable $700 device that exists right now, and thats without considering that it has a ton of features and power; if someone thinks theres a better portable below 1k let me know
Yincrow rw4000 - incredible neutral sounding earbuds, got them discounted for $330
Custom IVIPQ cable - its supposed to be the best cable maker in china, we had free shipping and taxes from china last year, didnt have enough for DHC or arctic, for $130 build and sound are superb
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Happy New Year 2025 Guys! I received my first audio-related equipment entering 2025 and I did it with the new Jomo Audio Nautilus. This iem caught my eye and I mostly bought it because I actually really like the look of it. Hopefully it sounds as good as people praise, but only 1 way to find out…
That’s not all though, thanks @oberon for the beautiful headphone stand. Words cannot describe how gorgeous this looks in person. It makes me wish I own an expensive camera so I can show how really nice it look in person. I am little late to the party, but I am glad to finally own one of Oberon headphone stand.
Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year and is doing well. I am looking forward to what kind of gear is coming out for 2025.
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I ran an optical cable around my bedroom to my bedside table and it feeds my CMA18 when I need headphones at night instead of speakers and it’s so awesome portable too. I’m still shocked by how well it drives planars in general, whether over ear or in ear and it has maybe the best mids I’ve ever heard from a piece of source gear. It has me super curious about the M18i.
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They really figured out this current drive tech, its way too solid now
The m18i would be a downgrade for sure
I have their flagship QPM which is a 2019 dap and they havent released any daps since, its exactly the same signature with more driving power, a touch more refine and more control on the problematic frequencies like 8khz to 10khz and the bass region
It can drive my t1.2 600ohm without a sweat, it can also do the super difficult adx5000, but its juice runs out with the ldc3pf and lcd4 those monster planars
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I’m honestly kinda surprised to hear that the CMA18 doesn’t drive your Audezes well. I think on paper the CMA18 has like 6x the power of the QPM and I’ve never had any problems driving any of my planars balanced other than the HE6 and HE6se v2 but even those get plenty loud enough and can even have enough headroom for an EQ profile that sucks like 7-10db of volume out but that puts them at 100% max volume in high gain. I use my HE1000se all the time with it and it’s fantastic but maybe that’s the HE1000se being 35ohm vs something like the LCD-4 at 200ohm biasing more towards voltage than current. I don’t really have any high impedance headphones anymore other than the T1.2s and those are definitely great on it but I hardly ever use them.
As for the M18i, I do feel like it’s probably a step down from the CMA18, but it’s got a pure dual mono design and ESS DAC chips, which I tend to prefer. Then again, if it’s the AKM chips in the CMA18 giving it the magic in the mids, I don’t want to lose that. I really love my M15i for the clarity and focus it has and it has all the power I’d need for all the stuff I’d travel with, I just really wish it had a fucking volume control on it and the M18i does.
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We have a very different definition of what driving well means, it varies from person to person
First of it sounds very good, but theres a massive difference when I use my desktop amps for it, which is not the case for every other headphone I have, cma18 actually drives some of them better than my desktop gear
Then the power on paper doesnt mean anything to me, those numbers are incomplete and dont express the current amplification technology
Volume is not equal to amplification, even a shitty ifi could get the he6 louder than I could stand when I had them, amplification is about breaking the impedance points and controlling the signal with authority to the point it can reveal extra density, clarity, detail, etc.
This probably came out as mean im very sorry that is not my intention, its just that im food poisoned and dont have the energy to explain the concepts in a polite and easy to understand way.
About m18i, you put it best, it has good qualities but ultimately feels like a step back rathen than a sidegrade
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Oh I’m right there with you 10000%. I think I’m something like $250k into amps for the HE6/HE6se and damn near all of them got them loud enough lol. I’m just saying as a reference, it’s actually able to get the HE6 and HE6se v2 to listenable levels. They might not be driven well by the CMA18, but it just shocked me that the LCDs were struggling, I’ve heard they’re typically pretty easy to drive but again, it has me curious if the current bias of the CMA modules struggles with higher impedance loads that bias more towards a voltage load rather than current. It’s funny, even the M15i, that has really low power relative to a lot of dongles out there, was still actually able to get the HE6 decently loud but you could hear the dynamics suffering extremely easily. Kinda makes me want to see what kind of things would happen with an impedance adapter inline with the HE1000se and if I could get that CMA amplification to act up.
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The struggle is relative from my perspective, one might say theyre good enough driven, others that theyre perfectly well driven considering its a portable.
But me personally I can hear the results of lack of juice, and enough of them to consider theyre not worth using with the questyles. But theyre actually so close to being “good enough” they just need a tad more juice and id be satisfied.
The lcd3pf and lcd4 are some of hardest planars to drive that exist, but because theres also a lot of very easy to drive audezes it gets confusing.
The lcd4z is a easy to drive version that came as a result of the lcd4 being too difficult, the normal lcd3 with the fazor are way easier than the pf.
The lcd5 are super easy to drive given their price range, and the popular lcd x are some of the easiest planars to drive of all time. And they have SO MANY other easy to drive planars.
The confusion is understandable
Given my experiments with around 20 headphones of different impedances and sensitivities, its not a current mode drive issue, its just that the lcd3pf and lcd4 are a few steps behind being as tough as a he6/susvara, but in a higher impedance and higher sensitivity way.
First of all the published numbers are not useful because the potency in miliwatts and volts doesnt reflect at all just how powerful these devices are.
Amperage and joules are not published and theyre constantly changing and charging so its not like they could say, yeah this makes 3 ampere, that would be misleading.
Their ability to drive difficult headphones is quite unvelievable, hear to believe kind of deal.
Ive experimented a lot, and drew my own conclusion as to what they struggle with the most.
That would be very sensitive iems because the questyles are too powerful, but lets ignore those and go back to over ears.
They had no problem at all with very high impedances, they can break the impedance barrier like its nothing and then drop the voltage down ultra fast, and repeat. They make it look easy.
Low sensitivity wasnt an issue either, they just have a lot of control on their current intensity, their low voltage actually makes it easier for them to control the charge.
What I found the most challenging were a very particular type of headphones, and lm 100% guessing and have no evidence other than listening tests.
Headphones with drivers that are able to receive a lot of potency like japanese made audio technicas and some planars like older hifiman and audezes:
They can be easy to drive or hard to drive, it doesnt matter, with these headphones that have a maximum power input of 2 and 3 watts they just didnt sound as good as I think they should given how good much more demanding headphones sounded even through single ended.
I might be reaching but maybe these headphone prefer amplification that generates a higher number of miliwatts instead of high current.
Anyway pretty interesting devices, and theres also the enleum 23rm and bakoon that use batteries and can (supposedly) handle a susvara and tungsten through current drive, but questyle is only using current drive while those also have optional voltage amplification.
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First of the new arrivals to get my attention, Cadenza 12. I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of these but thought that, although it’d be great to hear an IEM in this tier, that the tuning would be too safe and I’d probably move these on fairly quickly.
…having spent the last half an hour with them, I’m now thinking that they’re probably going to stick around. As mentioned above, I haven’t heard an IEM of this tier before but I am thus far impressed; particularly with the excellent image separation. I have already determined that they are probably not for EDM, but they’ve done well with everything else so far.
Qobuz > SU-1 > Mojo > Cadenza 12 (stock cable, narrow bore foam tips)
Now to compare them to my IEM reference, SuperMix 4. Then switch on to my Hiby R4 and continue the journey!
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Next on the chopping block, the Taurus mk. II. This is already proving interesting. IEMs sound good on it and my initial impressions are that it synergises well with my Comet+.
Whilst I don’t have the headphones here that will pair with these two amps, the Ananda Nano is already showing me how close this battle will be! The 281 sounds wider and a tad more relaxed thus far, but I am pretty damn jet lagged and should probably go make a cup of tea before listening to any more music…
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4 XLR cables, 4 TS-TS cables, 2 3.5-3.5 jack cables, 1 stereo pair RCA-TS, in various colors to make tracing them easier.
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